Kenya Alliance Resident Association (KARA) in conjunction with the Institute for Transport Policy (ITDP) Africa held a stakeholder’s forum on Nairobi County Non-Motorized Transport (NMT) Policy. The NMT Policy aims to lead the county towards becoming a green city.
The policy launched in 2015 provides efficient mobility with substantially low investment, improves access, creates livelihoods and is a low carbon emitter. The forum acknowledged that 42 per cent of road accident fatalities in Nairobi are pedestrians thus need to invest more on NMT facilities. Secondly, it was noted that a developed country is not where the poor own cars but where the rich use public transport.
NMT is actually the most dominant form of transport in Nairobi, accounting for 4.7 out of every 10 trips (nearly half) made within the city daily. According to a study conducted in 2004 by the Japan International Corporation Agency (JICA), showed that out of 4.82 million people’s trips per day, some 2.32 million person trips were accounted for by walkers and bicycle riders (48.2 per cent).
Over the next five years, the transport sector is set to undergo the most significant change in its history. With the planning of mass transport systems implementation, NMT is a key intervention close to sustainable urban mobility loop. It is important to understand that mobility access challenges are not only solved by construction of good roads but also by the implementation of an effective public transport system with adequate NMT linkages.
The NMT Policy is supported by both the county and National governments.
