Traffic Congestion and Derailment of Small Scale Investments in Ongata Rongai, Kajiado County – Kenya

Abstract

The study sought to investigate “Traffic Congestion Derailment on Small Scale Investors in Ongata Rongai, Kajiado County, Kenya”. It adopted a mixed research design, where both qualitative and quantitative perspectives were applied. Multistage, stratified, snowball and purposive sampling approaches were used to a draw a sample of 125 participants. In depth and structured interviews, observation and content analysis were used to collect data. Qualitative data were analyzed qualitatively categorizing the responses into essential themes, while the SPSS package was used to process the inferential statistics. The study was anchored on the traffic flow and economic theories. The findings reveal that 64% of the traffic jam(s) are caused by narrow roads and punitive overlap by unruly Matatus (mini buses)especially during peak hours. This practice leads to unnecessary delay of services and goods to consumers, besides reducing the level of income to the small scale business investors and creating high fatigue and anxiety among public travelers and private car drivers as they pile up on the road while careless Matatu drivers just jump the clue on the dusty side roads with impunity. The study concludes that besides enhancing police surveillance to control the unruly Matatu drivers, the road definitely needs to be expanded to due carriage to allow smooth traffic flow. It recommends quick expansion of the road to match the high rate of travelers and tough legal measures on Matatu and private drivers who break traffic rules and regulations with impunity.