It is either a serious lack of forward planning, or simply a public relations exercise by police at the expense of travellers.
How else would one explain the sight of school children stranded by the roadside and in bus parks because of a crackdown by the traffic police on Wednesday?
The traffic police officers have known for some time that schools were reopening this week.
Why on earth they chose to crack down on the so-called un-roadworthy matatus and other public service vehicles on the day most pupils were travelling to school, yet they had the whole of last week to get them off the road, is a bit of a mystery.
One cynical explanation is that the entire exercise was stage-managed to milk as much media attention as possible, and show the police working hard to lower the high rate of accidents on our roads.
However, we would like to believe the police have not gone so far over the line that making young people miserable, and causing their parents stress, is a plus. There is nothing more alarming than a parent seeing your child stranded on evening TV news when you thought he or she was well on their way to school.
With the high levels of insecurity, including kidnappings, rape and murder, such a crackdown that leaves so many young people vulnerable is unjustifiable.
grand plan
As anyone who has driven in Nairobi will testify, the traffic police display alarming levels of insensitivity to the agony motorists endure in long traffic jams.
But it isn't just police who are making mistakes. The roundabouts at junctions in Nairobi, for instance are partly to blame for the gridlock motorists find themselves in every day. Meanwhile, the grand plan to build by-passes that route transit traffic away from the city's centre seems to have retreated to Thika Road.
Source: The Standard | Online Edition
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