Sakaja Taps Kenyan Prof. Who Fixed London’s Transport Problem for Nairobi

Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja has tapped Prof. Washington Yotto Ochieng’ as his adviser for Mobility.  Ochieng’ is the Head of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and Chair in Positioning and Navigation Systems at Imperial College London. He is also the Senior Security Science Fellow at the Institute for Security Science and Technology (ISST) at Imperial College. Formerly, he was the Head of the Centre for Transport Studies and Co-Director of the ISST at Imperial. He is also the current Vice President of the Royal Institute of Navigation (RIN).

Examples of his works include the design of positioning and navigation systems (including Europe’s EGNOS and GALILEO systems) for land, sea, air and space applications; Air Traffic Management (ATM) and Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS). He is credited with designing the London Congestion System to ease traffic in the UK’s largest city. The system involves charging motorists to drive through certain parts of the city during certain hours, thereby reducing the number of vehicles operating in it.

His nomination was announced alongside those of County Executive Committee (CEC) members to serve in Sakaja’s cabinet. He will be tasked with helping the city sort the perennial congestion and public transport challenge plaguing Nairobi.

It remains to be seen how the county, in collaboration with the national government, intends to cut down the hours Nairobians lose in traffic, which translate to billions lost revenue. Pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists have also for many years been ignored in the planning of key city roads – resulting in major urban mobility challenges for the vast majority of Nairobians.

According to Numbeo Traffic Index, Kenya has the fourth worst traffic congestion globally in 2022 with a traffic index of 256.16. Other African countries facing traffic nightmares include; Nigeria (1st globally), Egypt (6th globally), South Africa (13th globally), Morocco (45th globally), and Tunisia (59th globally).

The growing embrace of Kenya towards green energy and electric vehicles is also likely to be at play in any plans. The country is positioning itself as an EV hub for the continent, and numerous EV development startups and companies have set up shop in Nairobi over the past few years.

This month, EV manufacturer Roam launched its mass transit electric bus for public transport in Nairobi, with the blessings of Kenya Power honchos who were present at the ceremony. Earlier, in March 2022, city bus giant Citi Hoppa had rolled out electric buses in partnership with e-mobility startup BasiGo. More charging stations are also being set up, and Government-owned power utility Kenya Power has committed to significant investment in EVs.

Ochieng’ is the holder of a BSc (First Class) in Engineering from the University of Nairobi, where he graduated in 1988, before moving to the United Kingdom. He would go on to study for an MSc (distinction) at the University of Nottingham and, later, PhDs in Differential GPS (DGPS) and fiducial network design.

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