The gateway to East Africa is broken. The Busia–Kisumu highway, a critical artery for regional trade, has disintegrated into a death trap of craters and dust, sparking outrage from motorists who are paying for the neglect with their lives and livelihoods.

What should be a smooth corridor connecting the Port of Mombasa to the Great Lakes Region has become a grueling test of endurance. Sections of the road at Korinda, Matayos Market, and Bumala have ceased to be tarmac and are now essentially off-road tracks. For the truck drivers ferrying fuel to Uganda and the matatu operators racing the clock, every trip is a gamble against broken axles and head-on collisions.

A Trade Route in Ruins

The economic cost is staggering. This highway is part of the Trans-African Highway network, designed to facilitate billions in cross-border trade. Instead, trucks are forced to crawl at snail’s pace, dodging potholes that are deep enough to swallow small cars. "We are spending more on spare parts than on fuel," lamented a long-distance trucker at the border point. "This is not a road; it is a quarry."

The human cost is even higher. Rising accidents are being blamed squarely on drivers swerving to avoid the craters, often into the path of oncoming traffic. The lack of shoulders and climbing lanes exacerbates the danger, leaving pedestrians and cyclists with nowhere to hide.

• The Hotspots: Korinda and Bumala are identified as blackspots where the road surface has completely failed, causing daily gridlocks.
• The Promise: The East African Community had launched a feasibility study for a dual-carriage expressway, funded by the African Development Bank. Residents are asking: Where is the contractor?
• The Reality: While feasibility studies gather dust, the road continues to crumble under the weight of heavy axle loads that it can no longer support.

The Patience Runs Out

Local leaders and residents in Busia and Siaya counties are now threatening to block the highway if emergency repairs are not initiated. They point to the contrast with the smooth highways in other parts of the country, questioning why the Western region’s economic lifeline has been left to rot.

As the rains approach, the fear is that the "highway" will turn into a river of mud, severing Kenya from its neighbors. For now, the Busia–Kisumu road stands as a potholed monument to bureaucratic inertia.