Sometimes back Kenyans went wild when our beloved Mr. Joseph said we have peculiar habits. Well... justified we were to rise up in wrath since our peculiarity was sending the service provider smiling all the way to the bank....Recently though I've come to think he was justified though he should not have said it out loud... some things are best discussed behind closed doors..
Now pardon me but when I was taught to drive I was told not to use blazing full lights when there's oncoming traffic as that tends to blinden other drivers, and could lead to all manner of accidents. I've adhered to this rule ever since, but recently my faithfulness to law has been tested beyond enduring limits...
For some reason most Kenyan motorists have decided full lights is the way to go at night. When you flash at them begging then to dip their lights, a few respond but most simply drive on. As a result you are also forced to turn your lights fully on otherwise you will be lucky to see the road and could be driven right off the edge.
The thing is, if we all observed the dip your lights rule, no one would need to flash anyone down. So why is it so hard when it's so common sense, why must we blinden each other making night driving such a grueling task?
I remember once when my husband and I were night driving from a wedding at Nyeri, my sister's wedding actually. We had a number of children in our car, little pretty flower girls. Now the Nyeri road can get quite hilly and curvy at places, and at one of this hilly section we turned the curve only to come face to face with a monstrous truck with full blazing lights.... My husband was driving and for a moment he could see nothing but this flood of speeding light, lost control as we attempted to avoid the truck and the car did a bit of a dance on the road but thankfully remained on the road and stabilized. The truck did not even blink, the driver just drove off. If we had had an accident, no one would have linked it to that mad driver, he would have been long gone...
Peculiar, yes, but also dangerously notorious on the road, not taking much responsibility for the lives of those around us, let alone our own.
Posts
