Apart from the reported Human accidents, some creatures are suffering in silence since the coming of Thika superhighway.
Thika road is almost complete with only some finishing touches remaining. Kenyans along this route have started experiencing the traffic jam free driving they were promised. Time taken from Thika to Nairobi has been reduced to just a few minutes.
Part of the project was to erect footbridges and that has been done in various high population places among them, Juja, KU, Kahawa and Safari Park. With the bridges in place, the speed bumps recently introduced, had to go, leaving a smooth highway all the way.
For sometime now, there have been concerns over the safety of the road, especially to pedestrians. Any way you look at it, the footbridges will never be enough, since people are everywhere. So, people are still jumping over the metal rails to cross to the other side of the road. The result is more statistics. We may be right to blame people for not walking to where the footbridge is located, but there are some creatures we can’t blame; the dogs that are knocked down on a daily basis. These days, you rarely drive along the whole road without spotting several carcasses. Majority of these belonging to stray canines. They are often flattened and blackened by the many passing vehicles, but occasionally, you may bump into a fresh one. The dead dogs are never collected and end up being part of the tarmac. The most probable time the poor animals breath their last is at night, the same time the metal rails are hit and deformed. Maybe we can spare the lives of these creatures with a little less speeding and drinking.
© nairobiwire.com
