NAIROBI, Kenya- Hundreds of motorists and passengers were forced to spend the night on the road after a massive traffic snarl-up paralysed the Gilgil weighbridge section of the Nairobi–Nakuru highway.
The gridlock began on Friday afternoon and stretched into Saturday morning, leaving long queues of vehicles stranded between Gilgil and Mbaruk.
Witnesses described kilometres-long lines of private vehicles, minibuses, and heavy commercial trucks barely moving for hours.
What Caused the Gridlock
Gilgil Base Commander Hussein said the traffic started building up at around 2pm on Friday.
He attributed the disruption to a high volume of vehicles using the busy highway, compounded by indiscipline among drivers, particularly overlapping at bottlenecks near the weighbridge.
The Nairobi–Nakuru highway is one of Kenya’s busiest transport corridors, linking the capital to the Rift Valley and western regions, and even small disruptions often snowball into major congestion.
Travel and Parcel Services Hit
The prolonged gridlock quickly spilled into the transport sector.
In a statement released Saturday morning, Ena Coach confirmed that the situation had disrupted both passenger travel and parcel delivery services.
“This situation is affecting departures from Nairobi to Upcountry, Upcountry to Nairobi, as well as arrivals from and at Mombasa,” the company said.
Ena Coach added that parcel deliveries would also face delays, apologising to customers for the inconvenience and asking for patience as authorities worked to restore normal traffic flow.
A Familiar Problem for Motorists
By Saturday morning, many travellers had spent more than 12 hours stuck in traffic, some sleeping in their vehicles as temperatures dropped overnight.
The incident has once again highlighted long-standing concerns over traffic management, driver discipline, and infrastructure pressure along key national highways — especially during peak travel periods.
Authorities had not indicated when traffic would fully normalise by the time of publishing.
