Kenyans may soon see an end to traffic jams following Transport Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen decision to engage the South Korean government in search of an intelligent system to tackle the traffic menace mostly prevalent in Nairobi City.
CS Murkomen disclosed this on Thursday after discussions with the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA) to implement a new system to control traffic.
In a meeting with the KOTRA, a company funded by the South Korean government, Murkomen revealed that the Ministry is set to deploy the Intelligent Traffic Management System (ITS).
The system will track vehicles and pedestrians to estimate safety at an intersection. It will also ease congestion, and improve traffic management and transportation.
Earlier, Murkomen had revealed that Kenya was benchmarking the ITS before rolling it out soon.
The system was piloted at the new Nairobi Expressway exit at Greenpark. This was to monitor its effectiveness when implemented on major roads.
"Its intelligent traffic monitoring system, which provides a 360-degree view of the entire road, has helped improve safety and emergency response. It will be a good benchmark for the ITS that we have piloted and are now ready to roll out," he stated on Saturday.
During the meeting, Murkomen also discussed the rollout of the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system.
"We discussed available opportunities for partnership in the furtherance of the Government’s infrastructure agenda and ways of bringing order in Kenya's transport sector," the CS stated.
Other topics of discussion included adopting and embracing e-mobility in the country a move that has been seen to ease the effects of climate change.
On traffic, Kenyans over the past few months have been stuck on major highways due to heavy traffic snarl-ups. The most affected roads include the Nairobi-Nakuru Highway, Thika Road Super Highway, and the Nairobi-Mombasa Highway among others.
There has also been congestion in the Nairobi Central Business District (CBD) due to the surplus of public service vehicles.
