BY ANTONY MUTUNGA
Most of the time that protesters have taken to the streets to have their voices heard has usually resulted in disaster as some people take the opportunity to cause chaos. These hooligans end up stealing, causing damage to property and in worse cases they injure innocent bystanders. However out of all the victims affected by demonstrations, one victim is usually given less thought whenever things are back to normal; the transport networks.
Over the years, protests have left roads in bad conditions as protesters end up vandalizing road infrastructure furniture and setting fire on the roads. For example, after the recent elections, people took to the streets and as a result of battling it out with the police some hooligans ended up vandalizing road signs, safety rails and barriers along major road networks, such as the new Outering highway, Mombasa road and Uhuru highway, and using them to block the roads.
The protests have also gone on to cause the destruction of communication infrastructure in the country. As a result of the recent protests and terrorism within the country, more than six base stations were destroyed this year causing a loss of more than Sh284 million according to the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA).
Apart from the destruction during protests, some people have also moved to vandalizing different road furniture, especially in areas with less supervision from authorities, with the intent of selling them off as scrap metal. With scrap metal being a commodity always in demand, road furniture has become the best and easiest target to be vandalized as it is believed to be an unlimited source since, it believed, the government will always replace it.
In addition to being a problem for the road network, this has also been a thorn on the side of the railway network as well, as cases of vandalism on the new standard gauge railway (SGR) keep increasing. For example, since June more than 10 scrap metal dealers have been arrested and charged with vandalizing the SGR in Mombasa.
Unnoticed by most, cases of vandalism on the transport networks have been on a rising trend, which in turn has affected our economy. The vandalism of road furniture causes our roads to be dangerous to both drivers and pedestrians. Before the introduction of road furniture, Kenyan roads used to experience a lot of accidents with devastating toll on human life. Ever since road infrastructure furniture such as guard rails and safety barriers were initiated on our roads, they have been very helpful in saving lives of those involved in accidents.
According to Francis Meja, NTSA Director General, as a result of putting up the guard rails in key areas which are considered black spots last year, the percentage of pedestrian deaths within Nairobi county reduced from 74% in 2015 to 65% in 2016. In addition, the number of people killed within the country as a result of road accidents also reduced by 18% between 2015 and last year.
However, as a result of increasing vandalism, different road furniture all over the country has been damaged and in worse cases completely destroyed. This in turn has seen avoidable accidents occur as a result. Mostly affected have been guardrails and road signs along major highways, which have been damaged resulting to unnecessary deaths not to mention the most unfortunate recent death of Nyeri Governor Wahome Gakuru after his car smashed into one of the vandalized metal guard rails that had not been repaired.
It is similar with the railway network. China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC), who are the SGR operators have so far reported about 140 accidents on the railway which they state are mostly caused by herders. Apparently, the herders have been vandalizing the security barriers in some areas. This is very dangerous as it puts the lives of the commuters in danger as animals can use the breached paths to get on the railway lines. Apart from this, it is also a major risk for the passengers and soon for cargo being carried as the trains have no insurance policies thus on event of such an accident there would be no compensation.
Secondly, as vandals do damage to the road furniture, they usually end up leaving the burden to the taxpayers, which vandals themselves are a part of, who have to pay for the replacement of the vandalized materials. According to John Mosonik, the permanent secretary in the department of infrastructure, damages on roads from protests alone cost the sector over Sh130 million. To repair this damages, funds are drawn from the budget put aside for the sector.
However, even though the budget is usually put in place for such eventualities, it normally comes up short. For instance, in the budget FY2017/2018 the ministry of transport and infrastructure got an allocation of Sh49.3 billion for road maintenance from the Road Maintenance Levy. However, due to the increasing trend in vandalism of road networks, the allocation put aside for the maintenance of the roads may not be enough. According to Kenya Rural Roads Authority (KeRRA) and Kenya Urban Roads Authority the areas that were mostly affected as a result of the protests after the recent elections include Mombasa, Voi, Homa Bay, Nairobi, Kisumu and Migori.
There being a lot of damages on the roads in the country, a lot of funds will be required to repair them thus the sector will be required to shift funds from other projects in order to fully fund the repair of the road networks. This in turn causes other projects to be under funded thus taking longer to be completed. On the other hand, the sector may decide to delay the repairs, which would lead to increased transport costs due to bad roads.
On the side of SGR, the country seems to already be incurring losses caused by the recurring vandalism of the SGR’s steel bars, electrics and signal facilities since its opening in June. According to Sia Li, the head of public relations at CRBC, the SGR is incurring losses estimated at over Sh300 million on a monthly basis as a result of vandalism.
Apart from our economy, the vandalism of transport system also ends up affecting other countries in the East African region. Whenever people vandalize road furniture be it during protests or for profit, it causes transportation on that road network to come to a standstill. As a result, landlocked countries who mainly use the road networks in the country for the movement of exports and imports end up being delayed prompting the countries to use other routes.
This usually puts a strain on the relationship with the other countries and in addition it causes our country to lose as the landlocked countries stop using our ports for their export and import. On the other side as the SGR looks to start the transport of cargo soon, the increase in vandalism on the railway will prompt many business owners to think twice on using it to transport their merchandise.
Time has come to educate the public on the dangers of vandalism on infrastructure furniture on our transport system in order to stop the massive negative effects it has on our economy. The ban on exporting scrap metal in Kenya has been helpful but it did not affect the scrap metal dealers within the country.
The government needs to put up more regulations in the country so as to ensure that people stop vandalizing the road furniture as way of profiting from it. In addition, the government needs to also ensure that it repairs the vandalized road and rail furniture as well as monitor it. The burden of monitoring the networks against vandals should not be the responsibility of security agencies alone but rather every Kenyan. In doing so, it will help in not only saving the lives of the citizens but also minimizing the cost it has on our economy.
