Photo: Lauren Everitt/AllAfrica

Traffic along Waiyaki Way in Westlands, Nairobi, Kenya.

Careless drivers and old trucks are to blame for the frequent traffic snarl-ups on Mombasa roads, the Kenya National Highways Authority has said.

Kenha said most drivers in Mombasa do not follow traffic rules while others overlap leading to deadlocks. Coast regional manager Kevin Nyabuto said order should be restored on the roads to reduce traffic.

He added that there are too many old trucks which operate within the city and its environs. Some of the trucks, he said, are usually overloaded leading to damage to the roads.

Nyabuto was speaking in his office in Shimanzi in response to complaints by the business community at the Coast over the frequent jams in the town.

The Regional Business Agenda chairman Titus Kangangi said the government should address the issue of Container Freight Stations that line up the Mombasa-Nairobi highway and other roads in the town.

"Most of the roads leading to the airport are lined up with the many CFSs that are causing traffic," said Kangangi. He said Mombasa, being the gateway to Kenya, should be made attractive to tourists.

Kangangi appealed to Transport minister Amos Kimunya to intervene. Earlier, the traders had complained about the Mombasa-Miritini road at Jomvu where the slow pace of the ongoing construction works are making businesses make losses due to time wasted.

"It takes a shorter time to import containers from China than taking them from the port to Busia," said Kangangi. Nyabuto however assured the businesspersons that the road will be completed within a month after the arrival of bitumen whose importation had been delayed due to pirate activities in the Indian ocean. He said there are many other road projects that will soon start in different parts of the Coast that will improve transportation.