dc.description.abstract | Many third world countries (Kenya included) have historically devoted a fair share of
their development budgets on expansion of rural road networks as the prime means of
enhancing accessibility and personal mobility of the rural dwellers. The rationale for
transport infrastructure was, and continues to be, predicated on the concept of vehicular
traffic. However, this has not necessarily translated to tangible benefits, as the roads in
themselves have not accommodated the full diversity of demand for transport by the
rural households that in most instances is not related to either a road, or the use of a
motorised vehicle.
This inadequacy has ensured that majority of rural inhabitants remain captives to a
walking and headlback carrying mode of travel and moving goods. Transport activities
continue to take up an inordinate amount of time and effort of the rural residents as they
try to access activity centres. This negates rural poverty eradication efforts as households
can only move from subsistence to higher levels of production and earnings if first they
are able to meet basic needs by ideally spending less time and effort. Thus there is need
to direct public investments to appropriate transport interventions that would reduce the
unproductive time and effort spent by households on transport.
This research recognizes that rural transport is directly related to rural access problems,
and it impacts negatively rural socio-economic development. However, lack of
perception of local-level transport problems by pol~cy makers has resulted to
unresponsive rural transport systems. This research set out three objectives: to (i)
establish the nature of the transport system in Nyabiosi Sub-Location, (ii) establish the
nature and extent of access and mobility needs of the households in the study area, and
(iii) propose appropriate interventions to increase accessibility and mobility capacity of
the households in the study area and in other rural areas in Kenya with similar set ups.
The study took the household as the generator of rural travel and transport patterns. It
also considered rural transport as the movement of rural people and their goods to meet
their domestic, economic and social needs, by any means, along any conceivable
infrastructure (including undesignated roads, tracks, trails and paths). Rather than
analyzing the needs of transport system from the point of view of a particular function to
be performed, the study focused on the transport needs of individual households.
Questionnaires were used to capture the travel patterns of the households. To explore the
local travel situation in a context beyond everyday needs of the household, data on
transport services and infrastructural needs ,were obtained by holding interviews with
public transport providers and users. Secondary data were obtained through literature
review.
An analysis of field data revealed that: vehicle ownership levels are very low; the village
infrastructure is in poor condition, there are no local-level transport services, available
public, transport services are affordable to most households; although women are the
main transporters, they make little use of low-cost vehicles due to factors ranging from
cultural constraints to lack of financial capacity to own any form of IMT; a major
proportion of household transport time (62.6%) and effort (77.8%) is spent on
accomplishing subsistence activities - collecting water, fetching firewood and travelling
to grinding mill; and water collection is the single most important transport activity
consuming 52.5% and 59.1% of total transport time and effort respectively. These
findings support the study hypothesis that transport for subsistence activities consume
considerable household time and effort and therefore jeopardises its ability to engage in
more productive activities.
The transport constraints established in the study cut across various sectors and are
relevant to a range of key development issues. They extend the subject outside the
transport sector to encompass broader rural planning issues and argue t he case for an
integrated approach to rural transport planning. Accordingly, in addition to development
of the rural road network, the study recommends other interventions involving three key
elements:
(i) Improvement of local-level infrastructure such as paths, tracks, and water crossings
to facilitate travel on foot and or use of low-cost means of transport.
(ii) Provision of adequate and affordable rural transport services, and promotion and use
of intermediate means of transport
(iii)Siting of services closer to the communities, thereby obviating the need for lengthy
travel. | en_US |