The flamboyant Nairobi Senator Michael Mbuvi alias Sonko today morning went on to highlight the harsh experiences Nairobians have to bear with as they join the rest of the citizens at their respective places of work.
Through his Facebook page, Sonko mentioned that at least a Nairobian has to spend a minimum of 5 hours per day to work. This leaves little time for them to spend with their families and even wasting a lot of time on the road.
“Nairobi’s traffic problems need to be solved to enable Nairobians to have enough time for their families. Then, as parents, we can have more time to raise our kids in the ways that are desirable.”
“No wonder whenever happiness surveys are conducted worldwide, Kenya does not make the list of happiest nations on earth” he added.
The senator went ahead to mention some of the ideas he thinks when employed can ease the menace or put it to an end.“Solving Nairobi’s traffic issues requires bold sacrifices and political willingness to change the lives of the common Kenyan.”
Sonko noted that the first option is to re-think of the working hours and if possible change the Kenya 8am to 5 pm working hours culture and incorporate 24 hour economy.“Perhaps we need to change when some of us start work. Kenya Power is at the forefront in ensuring we have a 24hour economy by providing the needed lighting.”
Secondly, Sonko noted that “our trained transport engineers should live up to the task and propose solutions to these problems and partner with the government and the private sector to deliver these solutions”. He also challenged institutions of learning to be at the forefront in research aimed at coming up with these solutions.
The senator seemed not happy with the idea of adopting systems that have been proved to work positively in other countries and instead he challenged people responsible to think of other solutions instead of aping other people or nations giving an example billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk’s proposed Hyperloop saying that “our engineers should not be limited to the conventional way of thinking.
“… We must think about other out-of-the-ordinary solutions instead of aping what has worked in other places and implementing them as they are.”
“We must go beyond what everyone else can think of as engineers because it is our job to come up with solutions that no one else can see.”
Sonkos comments attracted a lot of replies from his followers as they applauded him for his wise decision, with others promising him their votes during the next national elections.