NAKURU, Kenya, Jun 26 – The return of the illustrious World Rally Championship (WRC) ,Safari Rally in Kenya after a 19 year hiatus was cause for celebrations with all roads this past Thursday leading to Naivasha in Nakuru County with thousands of rally enthusiasts hoping to catch the adrenaline packed action event.
As the event entered fever pitch, thousands snaked their way to the county that was recently elevated to city status, but the good tidings of the rally came with it a traffic nightmare that many did not anticipate.
Thousands of motorists that had set their coordinates to Naivasha were left bewildered by the traffic congestion as others plying the Nakuru-Nairobi highway destined for other places in the region were forced to a halt.
It has been established that a section of the highway was closed to allow the competing rally cars to manoeuvre their way from Naivasha to Sosyambu.
A resulting traffic jam extending 20 kilometers was witnessed, towards the Nairobi direction, forcing motorists to seek alternative routes.
Traffic police issued a directive that the status would remain as is until the rally cars were done using the section of the road at the Naivasha-Kinangop junction.
Earlier this week, the government revealed that various roads would be closed to facilitate the WCR event.
“You can clearly see more than one thousand vehicles are stuck, roads are closed, even some of the rally vehicles are stuck. Now everyone is suffering,” said one motorist
“They should have designated special roads so that all of us are able to use this road,” said another motorist.
He added that, “The safari rally is good but next time the government should probably plan the rally in places like Turkana where there are little vehicles. Vehicles hearing to Eldoret, kisumu are now stuck.”
“I was on the road heading to Kakamega, from 6am I was stuck. I have a funeral to attend now with curfew fast approaching I don’t know what will happen,” a commuter told Shahidi News.
Small scale traders however benefited from the snarl-up raking huge profits.
Naivasha sub county police commander Samuel Waweru speaking to Shahidi News said that a directive had been issued days prior on possible road closures and Kenyans were advised to plan accordingly and use alternative routes.
The action packed event is expected to end on Sunday.
An estimated 30,000 visitors are in Naivasha with hotels reporting full bookings.
Over 50 rally drivers including 34 Kenyan racers are participating in this year’s Safari Rally.
The rally will benefit from 25 hours of live TV coverage in 155 TV markets.
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