COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIP FOR SAFE WALKING AND CYCLING IN KISUMU

BY ATIENO AGUTU FROM KENYA

Community Partnership for Safe Walking & Cycling in Kisumu is a community mobilization and awareness project that takes the approach of community groups locally known as "chamas". "Chama" is a Swahili word used to reference self organizing community groups or parties for the purposes of political, economic, or social development and empowerment activities in Kenyan culture. The project is modeled around this idea to advocate for the safety of non-motorized transport (NMT) users in Kisumu.

The project intends to initiate and build the capacity of Youth Traffic Cadets and Community Road Safety Groups with the aim of organizing two key community road safety awareness and mobilization activities; a Road Safety Week to advocate for safe NMT facilities at the 9th Afri-cities Summit which will be hosted in Kisumu later in the year and a World Day of Remembrance Walk to draw community attention to road safety and generate public demand for better protection of Vulnerable Road Users (VRUs).

The project goal is to project goal mobilise local resources and talent to sustain the project and create an informed community on matters around road safety by providing community-based capacity building training for Youth Traffic Cadents and other community road safety groups. The project also seeks to organize a Community Road Safety Week and Road Safety Walk to highligt the importance of safe spaces for walking and cycling.

ABOUT THE PROJECT LEAD

Atieno is a transport specialist with training from Hasselt University in Belgium, where she studied Transportation Sciences under a fully funded scholarship from VLIR-UOS. She specialized in Road Safety in Low-and Middle-Income Countries and Transport Policy and Planning. She was also a former intern at the World Bank's Global Road Safety Facility (GRSF). She recently founded the Citizens' Road Safety Lobby, a nonprofit Kenyan think tank that seeks to work with international road safety actors, local governments, and communities to help create a sustainable foundation for local road safety action and sustainable mobility solutions for all.

ABOUT THE LEAD ORGANISATION

Lake Region Economic Bloc (LREB)

Lake Region Economic Bloc (LREB) is headquartered in the Lakeside city of Kisumu and represents the socioeconomic aspirations of 14 counties in the Lake Basin Region which constitutes about 30% of Kenya's population. Its vision is to deliver sustainable and equitable socioeconomic development for the 14 million citizens of the Lake Region counties. The technical secretariat of the LREB has the political capital necessary for high level political advocacy that will be leveraged to access leadership structures among relevant city authorities to provide an enabling environment for the community road safety partnership between the citizens & leaders to thrive.