Kenyan traders are well known for taking advantage of public areas such as crowded footpaths and turning them into business ad-hoc premises hence constant running battles between county council officials in Kenyan towns, especially in Nairobi Central Business District.
Such battles land these traders, especially hawkers into arrests, and they are taken to holding cells after which they are presented to the court of law where they could pay a hefty fine.
However, traders in the Waiyaki way, Westlands area are taking opportunism to entirely new levels without minding the dangers associated with the construction activities around that area, where the construction of the Nairobi expressway is taking place.
Heavy construction vehicles and machinery use these spaces to turn and also lift heavy concrete beams onto the already constructed beacons and it is also the same path used by commercial and private vehicles plying this route. Recently on the same route, a flyover collapsed injuring a few workers in the construction zone.
Boda Bodas and small-scale traders such as the roadside roast maize sellers, mitumba traders, and retailers selling fast-moving consumables such as tea biscuits are already finding comfort under the bridge where business seems to be booming, putting their lives and those of their customers in grave danger.
Speaking to Kenyans.co.ke, a trader operating in the area revealed that their target customers are people in the Westlands area coming from work in the evening, a time when the county council officials are less vigilant and they pay no fees for operating in the area.
Common effects of letting these traders operate from these places are the littering of the environment around the area, posters on road beacons, and construction-related accidents that could cause injuries and even worse, loss of lives.
The Cabinet Secretary for Transport, James Macharia indicated during the National Development Implementation and Communication Committee (NDICC) projects assessment by Cabinet Secretaries that the project which was initially to be completed in December 2022 will be ready a year earlier, in December 2021.
This project, expected to link the east and the west part of the country has created over 2,000 different kinds of jobs for the Kenyan population.
Some facts about this KsH 62 Billion facility is that in case it fails to attract motorists, then the liability will not be borne by the Kenyan government, but by the investors funding the infrastructure.
Also, motorists plying this route will take only an estimate of 20 minutes from the Mlolongo area to the Rironi area near Limuru.
The toll road is expected to have several interchanges namely; SGR interchange, JKIA interchange, Eastern Bypass interchange, Capital Centre, Haile Selassie, Thika road, Westlands, and James Gichuru interchange.
The Nairobi Express road is being constructed by Chinese Contractors China Road and Bridge corporation which is also behind the Standard Gauge Railway.
