How shady schools are giving many drivers the keys to kill

I know someone who was certain that she would fail her driving test, but to her consternation, she passed, yet she had been unable to drive the car uphill.

 “Wewe kwani walikufundisha nini?!” barked the policewoman overseeing the test. By then, the car was steadily moving downhill. Sounding irritated, the examiner asked my friend whether she had really been to a driving class, and without waiting for an answer, ordered her to get off the car.

Flustered and embarrassed, she got off, with no doubt in her mind that she had flopped the test. She was therefore surprised when she was handed an interim driver’s license later that day.

Within a week of getting the document, she had rammed into another car, reversed into a ditch, and veered off the road several times. Thankfully, she did not hit anyone. She would later hear that the driving school she had gone to bribed examiners to give all their students a pass.

This was the strategy they used to get more people seeking to learn how to drive, to register with them – a guaranteed driver’s license. The only reason my friend had chosen this driving school (it is no longer operating) is because it was near where she lived, and therefore convenient.

That was six years ago, and she now considers herself a competent driver, but looking back, she admits that she learnt very little about how to drive, from that school – she acquired her skills through trial and error on Nairobi’s hazardous highways. Imagine then the danger she put herself and others in as she blindly navigated her way around Nairobi and its environs.

If there are such other driving schools, I shudder when I think of the many supposedly competent drivers we are sharing the road with.

Perhaps this could partly explain the many accidents we keep reading and hearing about.

Early this year, a relative employed a driver who had been highly recommended by a friend. She was assured that even though he was young, he had an extensive driving history, and had even driven trucks for two years.

This relative figured that she would be in safe hands, after all, handling a small car would certainly be child’s play for someone who had mastered the skill of driving those monstrous impossible-looking trucks.

Shock on her. On his first day at work, the young man jumped a traffic light, and drove smack into an electricity pole while trying to avoid hitting another vehicle.

Luckily, no one was hurt, but as you would expect, this relative, who had been in the car with her husband when the accident happened, sacked her new driver on the spot.

Many times, I have spotted people, (or should I say fathers?) on highways no less, driving with their child on their lap. You should see the excited tot, hanging onto the steering wheel, blind to the danger his father is exposing him to. Imagine what would happen if, God forbid, an accident happened. Gentlemen, there must be a thousand normal ways to bond with your child, why choose one that could snuff out his life in a second?

It is such incidents that convince me that some of us walk around with a death wish in our pockets.

Feedback

We always get our financial priorities wrong. No not once have I heard Kenyans say “I cannot buy lunch worth Sh1,000” and the same character spends the same amount on alcohol. We have to stop singing the kumekauka song to receive God’s blessings.

Kiarie

How dare you expose the majority us? It’s a KE brand language anyway; “mwezi iko mbaya..”. Nice one.

Kijomba

In campus, it’s no surprise for me to complain how the price of commodities has risen from the kiosk/grocery stall....even a five shilling increase is enough to cause mumbling and furor. However, when the weekend sets in, strangely I have no qualms spending a tidy sum of money on a thrill in town. This leaves my wallet malnourished, but I’m not complaining. You should see me during weekends you’d think I own all the money in the world.

Allan

The answer is simple. People have A habit of borrowing money  and never paying back. One must play broke to ward off these characters.  In my community we say “ ûkarî mûhithe nî mwega.”  In presence of a financially stable character, the word broke does not feature  except of course if one wants to borrow from him.

Karofia