| dc.description.abstract | The main purpose of this study is to examine the development
of the road transport system of Kenya and its relationships with
socio-economic components of development. Five major lines of
investigation are pursued; and to these are tied more closely the
hypothesised relationships for testing and validation. First, the
study examines the origin, growth and development of the road
network system. This identifies the major stages of its evolution
and compares them with the ideal-typical sequence model of network
growth and development. These form the basis for the assessment
and evaluation of the relationships between the network's patterns
and selected indices of socio-economic development according to the
administrative district units. The fourth line of investigation
involves the analysis of the patterns of passenger and commodity
flows. Lastly, composite indices of socio-economic development are
calculated, ranked, compared and the districts classified according
to their levels of development. These are then related to the level
of road transport development.
The main thrust of the study involves designing a simple
conceptual model specifying the interrelationships between transport
and development, within the framework of which, four hypothesised
relationships are formulated. The validity of these relationships are
examined and tested by correlation and regression methods of
analysis with respect to quantitative cross-sectional data. The
technique of dominant flow analysis is applied to traffic
movement data to identify. dominance-dependence associations among
the districts and provinces, while transaction flow analysis is
used to generate the "more than" and "less than" expected levels of
interaction. One of the methodological features of the study is
the use of the taxonomy methodology as a means of amalgamating
data relating to variable. values measured in different units
A number of interesting findings are highlighted and pertinent
conclusions drawn from them.
The study finds that the Kenya road network system has evolved
through three main stages: penetration lines,development of feeders
and lateral interconnections, and the emergence of high priority
Linkages, The first stage in Taaffe model, ."scattered ports is
irrelevant to the development of road network. With respect to
the pattern of road network densities, three concentric zones with
their bases in western and central Kenya, and at the coast can be
delineated. The stepwise multiple regression analysis applied to
the network data confirms the results of simple correlation
analyses that population and land area are the major determinants
of the spatial variation in the pattern of road network. The
addition of the index of agricultural development in the equation
increased the level of explanation by only about 1 per cent.
The dominant flow analysis shows that Kenya can be divided
into three macro-functional regions based on Kisumu, Nairobi
and Mombasa towns, with nested hierarchies defined around Eldoret,
Nakuru and Embu Towns. The application of the gravity model formulations to the movement data demonstrates that distance and
population are the major determinants of the volume of movement.
The effects of other socio-economic factors seem to be obscured
by the effect of population. The major conclusion drawn with
respect to commodity flows by road is that, in a system of trade
transaction, it can be misleading to evaluate the strength of
connections between places if the only yardstick is the magnitude
of the sizes of shipment. Better evaluative criteria are the
quantitative indices of complementarity.
The study finds that the development of road transport is
closely interrelated with socio-economic components of development.
This has been demonstrated graphically by the linear pattern of the
array of points. It has been found that the districts with higher
scores on the index of road transport tend to score highly on other
indices of development. The resulting patterns show that more
developed districts are concentrated in Western, Nyanza and Central
Provinces, the major"differentiating elements in the levels of
development being differences in the population sizes and densities
of the districts, the predominant type of agricultural practices
and access to closer networks of transportation routes. The results
of the stepwise multiple regression analysis show that the indices
of transport, education, agricultural, communication and health
explain 99 per cent of the variation in the overall pattern of
development in Kenya, the key factor being the index of transport.
A similar analysis using the index of transport as dependent variable
reveals that indices of population, agriculture and industrial and "
commercial together, explain 75 per cent of the total variance, with
population index being the most important element. It is, therefore,
concluded that transport/development relationship is a two -way
interaction process.
On the basis of these findings, major conclusions can be drawn
and recommendations suggested. The negative correlations between
areal sizes of the districts and indices of development indicate
that larger district areal sizes are a retardation to development.
This is crucial in Kenya with regard to the allocation of
development funds under the new policy of " District Focus for Rural
Development . The large, but less developed districts will have to
get larger shares of development funds if the existing gap between
them and the smaller, but more developed districts has to be closed.
Functional regions could be a better approach to development planning
in Kenya as opposed to the current district and provincial boundaries
which are, if anything, ethnic group boundaries.The findings of this
study further, suggest that larger districts and provinces could
be sub-divided into smaller units for effective administration and
and "implementation of development plans. The isolation of the coast and
northern Kenya from the rest of the country could be reduced by
developing an alternative all weather road through Machakos and
Kitui towns to the districts in the Lower Tana River Valley and
all-weather road links between the districts in the north and the
more developed districts in the south. In this way, the isolated
districts with their livestock products, potential irrigable lands
and tourist attractions could be integrated with the core areas
of national development. Finally, this study recommends an integrated
study of road and rail networks of Kenya to find out their relative
impact on development and shares in the movement of goods and people | en |
