Strategic highway to west reopens
Normal transportation of goods and people to the west of Kenya resumed last week after days of disruption along the highway from Nairobi to west of the country and Uganda. Armed police cleared the highway of barricades erected by marauding youths in the ongoing post election violence that many people say has now taken a life of it’s own. Cargo trucks and buses destined for the region and neighbouring countries of Uganda and Rwanda could be seen moving in lengthy convoys, Thursday evening and Friday morning.
Movement of cargo by rail as well resumed providing a big relief to various destinations after it was disrupted last week following ripping of a section of the Kenya Uganda- railway line by protesting youths in the capital’s Kibera slums.
The government repaired the destroyed 1 Km section and announced that the line will be re-routed from the heavily populated slum, to less crowded parts of the city to avoid similar incidents in the future
Road transport was curtailed by barricades erected by fighting gangs in Nakuru and Naivasha towns both gateways to western Kenya on weekend , in what was believed was believed to be retaliatory attacks by Kikuyu youths avenging the killing of their kin in rift valley and Nyanza.
The interruption on the weekend and part of this week elicited protest from neighbouring , which through deputy prime minister Eliya Kategeya, said her factories were suffering due inability to access raw materials from the port of Mombasa .
Kategeya called on Kenya’s security minister George Saitoti to complain of the effects the acts of lawlessness were having on his country , prompting the minister, Tuesday to order harsh action on anyone blocking normal flow of traffic on the crucial highway.
Police responded at once arresting tens of youths taking advantage of situation in the country to harass motorists and steal from them after erecting the road blocks.
By Friday morning vehicles were plying the road without need of police effort other than near Kericho and Eldoret towns where gangs of young men were protesting at killing of Ainamoi MP David Too.
The new development came as a big relief to business in western Kenya where supplies of crucial commodities had begun going down.
Also breathing a sigh of relief are flower farms located near lake Naivasha who had been unable to bring their produce to Nairobi , for export for 3 days.
Reports indicated that Ugandan fuel tankers had resumed picking oil supplies from Kenya Oil pipeline depot in Eldoret which had been disrupted for days.
The highway had been cleared 2 weeks ago but a return of violence this time in Nakuru and Naivasha towns, by Kikuyu youths seeking to eject non tribesmen from the 2 towns saw another closure of the all important corridor that forms part of the Great North Road ..
Violence and uncertainty aside Kenyan major export products , tea and cut flowers are said to be in high demand in export markets fetching good prices from buyers fearing inadequate supply.
“ Our flowers are currently fetching very high prices in Netherlands owing to panic buying by distributors , who fear an escalation of violence would mean no supply at all” said Erastus Mureithi Kenya flower council chairman.
Mureithi said that growers in Eldoret were also sending their flowers abroad by flying them to Nairobi for onward export to Europe.
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