Nairobi is one of the fastest growing cities in Africa – its population has doubled in just 16 years – and is rapidly heading towards middle income status. Yet it suffers from high levels of congestion, low levels of public transport use, and very high death and injury rates from road accidents. Recent research from ODI has found that 65% of the people who die on Nairobi’s roads are pedestrians, with no sidewalks, overbridges or public transport options to keep them safe.

ODI is holding a public event to discuss the road safety challenges and opportunities in Nairobi. The panel discusses why road safety is such a pressing (and growing) issue, what improvements are currently being made, and what needs to happen now to keep people safe.

Read the interactive report.

Biographies

Saul Billingsley is the Executive Director of the FIA Foundation. Saul serves as a Trustee of the International Road Assessment Programme (iRAP), a UK charity which advocates for safer road design across the world; and he is a member of the Board of Directors of Safe Kids Worldwide, a US-based non-profit working for child injury prevention. He served on the Executive Committee of the Global Road Safety Partnership (GRSP) from 2007 to 2013, and was a Trustee of the UK Road Safety Foundation from 2008 to 2013. Saul was Deputy Director General of the FIA Foundation from 2004-2013 and its first Programmes Director from 2001-2004. He was previously Director of Policy in the European Union office of the Fédération Internationale de I’Automobile, and Parliamentary & Campaigns Manager for the RAC, a UK motoring organisation.

Bright Oywaya is an ex-banker and counseling psychologist by profession. She is currently the Executive Director of the Association for Safe International Road Travel (ASIRT-Kenya), a not-for profit organisation that promotes road safety through education, awareness creation and advocacy. She is a board member of the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) a Trustee of the Association for the Physically Disabled of Kenya (APDK) and  a board member of the International Road Victims Partnership (IRVP). Bright Oywaya has been advocating for issues relating to road safety since 1997 when she was involved in a road crash that made her a wheelchair user. Her advocacy work is both at the national level and globally.

Beatrice Obwocha is a journalist, previously the online subeditor for the Nation Media Group in Kenya. She also worked with Standard Group Limited as a reporter and online subeditor. Beatrice reports on rod safety issues and has covered high level meetings including the WHO's 2015 Second International Road Safety Conference in Brazil as a fellow with the International Center for Journalists. She also participated in a four-month training on road safety sponsored by WHO and Internews in Nairobi, which inspired her to write a series of stories on road safety for The Daily Nation. She has also trained journalists on road safety reporting in Kenya and Tanzania.

Hon. Lee Kinyanjui is the new Governor of Nakuru County, Kenya and the former Chairman of the NTSA.

Hon. Mike Mbuvi Sonko is the immediate former Senator of Nairobi County and the current Governor of Nairobi County. He was a Member of Parliament for Makadara Constituency, in Nairobi, Kenya.

Francis Meja is the Director General of the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA), Kenya. He is responsible for the implementation of the policies, programmes and objectives of the Authority. Prior to his appointment in 2013, he was the Registrar of Motor Vehicles. Mr. Meja commands a wealth of knowledge and expertise on road transport and ransport logistics. He is a holder of a Master's Degree in Business Administration (Strategic Management) from University of Nairobi and has a BA in Economics and Public Administration from University of Marathwada in India.

Clare Cummings is a Research Fellow in the Politics and Governance team at ODI. She specialises in political economy analysis of service delivery, public sector reform, and urbanisation. Her work includes analysis of water, sanitation, transport and health services in urban areas and largely focuses on sub-Saharan Africa. She co-leads the development of ODI’s urbanisation work and is involved in our on-going work into adaptive, locally-led and politically smart development programming.