Bad driving Roundup

bad driver Index
The other day I was stuck in a meeting and had a chance to observe traffic at the Kenyatta Avenue /I&M Towers intersection - and realized how bad we are at driving. A few minutes later I was down there myself adding to the chaos nosing a car foot-by-foot through until other driver had to yield.

While the most aggressive drivers appear to be matatus, taxis, citi hoppas, we are all to blame as regular motorists because we are equally bad drivers. Driving along the roadside, changing or creating extra lanes, doing u-turns etc.

Matatu and other bus drivers can get reported by sending an SMS to 2333 and once a month the Ministry of Transport will publish all these offences in a full page spread in the newspaper.

But there’s no mechanism for reporting private motorists or consequence for private bad drivers.
I wish the Ministry would extend the program to private motorists – in conjunction with Safaricom or Celtel – and enable motorists, or pedestrians to report bad driving by any driver. The difference is that only motorists who pile up more than 5 or 10 offences a month (reported by different people) get printed in the paper and asked to appear before the traffic court to answer for driving offences. I wonder how many times I’d appear on that list!

But motoring is only an extension of our aggressive/ rude inconsiderate selves that can be manifested anywhere, not just when driving.

Consider these other examples from a supermarket last weekend;
- Our inability to form a queue. Uchumi has a sign clearly indicating where to line up for bread - but which most customers ignore as they crowd the counter and yell out their orders for hot loaves or croissant
- A man with his kids on his way to a birthday party who pushed a full trolley through the 3 items only aisle. When I asked him if he understood the policy of the aisle, he said he was buying only 3 items – chocolate bar, bag of sweets, and balloons - but 10 of each item which unfortunately also had to be rung up separately by the cashier!
- Another day, a lady with her young daughter who paid for her items only to realise that her young daughter had picked out the wrong type of lotion. But instead of dealing with it later, she shoved a 1,000 shilling note at the cashier and dashed back into the supermarket to pick up the correct bottle – leaving five of us in the 3 items express queue also waiting to be served. To add insult to the matter she bumped into an old friend and had a chat for a minute while the rest of us stood and muttered insults under our breath.

Enough about that.

Airlines
Just about 20 months ago we marvelled at Kenya Airways whose share price had just shot up into the 60's - before it went on to hit 140 and settle around 120 shillings a share. At the same time Richard Branson was setting up a Virgin partnership in Nigeria and the first scheduled airline services were resuming to the Sudan

Today, Kenya Airways share price is back in the 60's, Virgin Atlantic's boss is here to firm up his launch plans for the Virgin Airline and there seems to be a new airline to the Sudan every month.

Francis Thuo
Today, March 21, marks the deadline for investors and creditors of Francis Thuo Stockbrokers to have filed their claims with the statutory manager.

Busy paper pushers
There are people employed at organizations whose job is to align their organizations to the national goals of the day. Like chameleons, they alter their corporate objectives, mission, and policies to ensure they are aligned to ensure 10% economic growth, millennium development goals(MDGs), zero based budgeting, and now Visions 2030 etc. Also in a touch of electioneering they have been asked to mention what constituency any/all their operations are - which will no doubt end up in a little booklet that will be dished out by November.

More media
Amid the changes at KTN comes a new television station to Kenya with a twist: first to broadcast vernecular language

Finally
driving horror tale A bank manager parked his luxury car on the street during the daytime and came back to collect it at about 8 p.m. He entered and drove towards home along well-lit streets till near Westland's when he noticed that he couldn't see the road very well. He parked at a petrol station and got out - only to find that his car had no headlights. They had all been removed by street boys back in town, and he had blissfully driven this far courtesy of Adopt-a-light streetlights.