Walking Licences for Pedestrians

I am back in the big city after several years away in mashambani. I am now the true Layman in that I am having to learn everything afresh. This shamba la mawe (concrete jungle) is so different from when I roamed this city; young, wild, and free. Everything has now been changed so as to intimidate me, or so it seems. I have to consciously think of where am going because it is now easier than ever to get lost. The fact that am coming back as a driver does not help matters. I am having to learn on the job. I am a work in progress.

We don’t have to admire big roads in the movies. The movies have come to us, in the form of super highways and bypasses in the places where there used to be footpaths back in the day. While I could always brag about my knowledge in how to read traffic lights to my fellow Laymen in Eldoret, I have seen a new concept which I had not left in Nairobi. The traffic lights now have countdown clocks. They make me feel like an astronaut about to lift off in a rocket. The only thing remaining is to have a loud speaker reading the countdown out loud.

I am impressed by Nairobi drivers because they are very compliant with all the myriad rules. I however have a problem with pedestrians. They seem to have acquired a rare kind of confidence which borders on arrogance. Like the drivers, pedestrians also have their own lights – complete with a countdown clock. For the life of me however, I cannot tell why they don’t use them.

When you are driving, you patiently wait for the lights to go green as you quietly whisper the seconds as they countdown. Then, just as you are allowed to go, the proud Nairobi pedestrians step off the kerb and waddle onto the road with the gait of peacocks. However narrow the road is, this pack of self-righteous pedestrians will make sure that they use as much time as it takes for the lights to go red before they reach the other side. By now you are fuming and these folks on foot will sneer back at you as if to say “Utado?!” (What’s the worst you can do?).

If you ask me, someone is out to punish those who are rich enough to afford cars. What he forgets (whoever he is) is that not everyone who is driving on the road owns a car. Some of us are just employees who use the cars during the day and walk home in the evening. If you thought you are punishing a rich man, you are wrong. I am your fellow hustler. Spare a thought for poor drivers who have to accomplish their daily work quotas even with your spirit of non-cooperation on the road.

In order for me to qualify to drive a car on the road, I had to undergo lessons and pass a test. To get a driving job, I had to undergo a rigorous interview process where among other things, I had to prove that I could drive a car safely. I also have to undergo serious vetting every time a traffic policeman stops me. I therefore find it ironic that one only needs to be able to put one foot in front of another to walk in Nairobi. This is somebody who has to use the same road and follow the same rules as me who is a full professional driver. It is for this reason that I recommend a Walker’s License especially for those who intend to conduct that dangerous activity in our beautiful city.

With such a license, a proper curriculum could be developed and comprehensive training carried out before testing and issuance of a license. Random police checks could then be carried out on people arriving in Nairobi on public transport, and those deemed unqualified to walk our streets sent back home on the same matatus they came in. This would definitely increase the respect between drivers and pedestrians because it would be a case of one professional beholding another. There would be less accidents involving pedestrians and definitely less traffic jams. Walking would cease to be the most dangerous form of transport. But then, that’s just me; and am only a Layman!

P.S. Did you know that (theoretically at least) you could have set off the gridlock traffic jam during your lunch break that will delay your reaching home in the evening? It is all to do with your running the pedestrians’ red light just outside your office.