Motorists in Mombasa were on Wednesday morning caught up in a huge traffic snarl-up as the county government implemented new traffic rules.

The situation brought chaos and confusion among motorists and passengers using public transport means getting to the CBD causing them to get let.

The county government of Mombasa through the department of Transport and Infrastructure came up with new traffic rules dubbed ‘double 2 double 2’ meant to ease congestion with Mombasa.

In the new directives that became effective Wednesday morning, all motorists going to the city center will be required to turn left at Buxton junction and join Digo Road all the way to Likoni-Ferry.

Those coming from ferry will have to turn left at the Backlays roundabout and go all the way to sabasaba before turning right and head towards Buxton to Nyali Bridge.

The county has also banned heavy trucks from accessing the CBD and will instead operate between 8pm and 5am in the morning.

Angry motorists and passengers expressed their frustrations saying that the new directive was ill advised as it was only going to cause more traffic.

“I have never seen such confusion in our roads, if this is what they want to implement then they have failed, it is not going to work. The county needs to rethink the strategy ,” said Ali Swaleh, a resident from Kisauni.

Swaleh called on the county to rather invest in expanding the road network in Mombasa which he said was going to decongest the city’s roads.

His sentiments were echoed by Rajab Juma from old town who said that the move failed to consider emergencies because making the road from buxton to Backlays meant that one had to go all the way to sabasaba and round to buxton to get to coast general hospital.

“The new rules will create a mess in our roads, how will someone coming from old town or ferry get to Coast general hospital if the road is only going one way, how will they even cater for fire emergencies?” he posed.

Matatu drivers faulted the new rules saying that they were not consulted saying that they will be forced to increase fare as they are forced to go round a longer route to get to several destinations within Mombasa town.

Abdulrazak Salmini, a matatu driver along the Mtwapa-Town route said that the new rules were not going to work.

He said that the main Mombasa-Malindi highway already experiences traffic at Bombolulu and and Lights area.

“The new rules will not work as it has many challenges, it has in fact increased jam and has forced us to use longer routes increasing the cost of fuel, we have no option but to also increase fare,” he said.

His sentiments were echoed by Michael Chayu plying the Tudor-Docks route who said that the new traffic rules were going to affect their pick-up points and stages.

“The county ought to have consulted us before coming up with the new rules, the move has affected stages meaning that we will be forced to drop and pick passengers in the middle of the road, this will lead to an increase in accidents on our roads,” he said.

Mombasa County Transport executive Tawfiq Balala however dismissed claims that they failed to consult stakeholders saying that they were all involved before the new traffic rules were formulated.

“We have had a series of meeting with all stakeholders in the transport industry before we decided to implement the new system, we expected the confusion today but I believe with time things will run smoothly,” said Balala.

Balala said that the county was going to monitor the happenings on the road for the next one week and prepare a report on the challenges experienced to come up with solutions to streamline the entire traffic schedule to work effectively.