What is wrong with this photograph? The traffic control devices in late 1860s to early 1900s The first traffic control device appeared near the British House of Parliament at the intersection of George and Bridge Streets. The device was made in response to the desire by a Select Committee to use railway signals on highways. The device had lights and it used arms which extended outwards. It was operated manually by a police officer. The signal was 22 feet high and crowned with a gas light. The light was called the semaphore and had arms that would extend horizontally that commanded drivers to "Stop" and then the arms would lower to a 45 degrees angle to tell drivers to proceed with "Caution". At night a red light would command "Stop" and a green light would mean use "Caution".[7] The man behind this new and different invention was John Peake Knight a railroad engineer. The main reason for the traffic light was that there was an overflow of horse drawn traffic over Westminster Bridge which forced thousands of pedestrians to walk next to the house of Parliament.[8] Sadly Knight’s invention was not to last long. After only a month of use the device exploded and injured the police officer who was operating the light. In the first two decades of the 20th century semaphore traffic signals, like the one in London, were in use all over the United States with each state having its own design of the device. One good example was from Toledo, Ohio in 1908. The words “Stop” and “Go” where in white on a green background and the lights had red and green lenses illuminated by kerosene lamps for night travelers and the arms where eight feet above ground.[9] Controlled by a traffic officer who would blow a whistle before changing the commands on this signal to help alert travelers of the change the design was also used in Philadelphia and Detroit.[10] The example in Ohio was the first time America tried to use a more visible from of traffic control that evolved the use of semaphore. The device that was used in Ohio was designed based off the use of railroad signals.[11] Regards Robert Yawe KAY System Technologies Ltd Phoenix House, 6th Floor P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200 Kenya Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696 ________________________________ From: robert yawe <robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk> To: robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Sent: Monday, 30 September 2013, 11:11 Subject: [kictanet] Incompetence gallore - reloaded Hi, These silos that exist in the government are killing us, that is why we need to at the least have a single contact point for the entire government an issue that not even Dr. Ndemo who pulled a cable all the way from Fujaira was unable to achieve. The tunnel recently identified running under the Westgate Mall is a clear sign of a disconnected system that suffers from a serious analogic disorder, I know of similar tunnels in the CBD and even used to play in one in Buru Buru. http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/nairobi-attack-escape-route-tunnel-2... We have a non-existent emergency contact number, hundreds of numbers for the government many of which are never picked up, police manned traffic lights, no comprehensive infrastructure plans not even for the roads, ghost workers who collect salaries and attend conferences, and no finger print database. With all the above it is clear why terrorists can come in have a field day and leave unnoticed. Regards PS. The KICTA has shown that it has no intention of remedying the issue as is clearly seen from their first major project a Kes. 1.5 billion application purchase for the registrar of motor vehicles. Our friend the Governor of Nairobi and his ilk are no better as they have gone our tendering for building of data centers, I wonder how that will assist in weeding out ghost workers, garbage in . . . Robert Yawe KAY System Technologies Ltd Phoenix House, 6th Floor P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200 Kenya Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696 ________________________________ From: Ali Hussein <ali@hussein.me.ke> To: robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Sent: Wednesday, 25 September 2013, 18:40 Subject: Re: [kictanet] Incompetence gallore James Those statistics are pretty good and the linkage to societal differences apt. However it doesn't excuse the mediocrity that Joe alluded to. Imagine if we were to just pull up our socks by a mere 10%? It would probably mean we save one more life per 100k. In Kenya that would mean saving 40 lives per year. How about that? Isn't that worth us improving? Ali Hussein +254 0770 906375 / 0713 601113 "Kujikwaa si kuanguka, bali ni kwenda mbele" (To stumble is not to fall but a sign of going forward) - Swahili Proverb Sent from my iPad On Sep 25, 2013, at 3:47 PM, Gideon <gideonrop@gmail.com> wrote: +1 Mr. James Mbugua.
May the souls of those who lost their lives in the Westgate attack RIP and may we find humanity in our daily living. I appreciate all the efforts that were made to aid during the sad time by everyone directly or indirectly. God BLess Kenya.
Nairobi Homicides per 100,000 people = 4
Memphis, Tennessee No.10 most dangerous US City Murders per 100,000 = 24.5
Top 3 are Flint, Michigan (64.9 murders per 100,000 people), Detroit 54.6/1000 and New Orleans, Louisiana 53.5.
With 4 per 100,00, I would say Nairobi, although has work that needs to be done, should be judged first and foremost on the nature of its society and hence these comparative figures...Lack of the 911, police equipment or vehicles, may not be the problem but the accomodating nature of this society...After all, American cities with more than enough emergency lines operators, vehicles and so on are suffering crime rates beyond the realm of Nairobians' imagination (More than 10 times).
We are not equipped for terrorist attacks that we have learnt just like NYC learn with 9/11 where many firemen and policemen died rushing into the towers to aid, the important thing is what lessons to draw from here.
Otherwise, for someone from say the US or UK which are highly individualistic societies may find the lack of sufficient patrol cars a problem but in a society where informal social support systems pervade every level of society like Kenya's calling the neighbour to help is usually enough.
James
On Wed, Sep 25, 2013 at 2:58 PM, Joe Murithi Njeru <joe.njeru@zilojo.com>wrote:
Hello Adam,
I agree with you on all the points below.
The level of professionalism in certain parts of public sector is diabolical.
When I was in Kigali some time back, a kid told his father - who had just littered the street with a paper - that if he did not pick it up he would report him to the police...
At iHub, I always pay City Council and ensure I get a receipt. Which I promptly claim as a business expense.
That helps reduce the tax I pay Ceaser each year.
On 09/25/2013 11:03 AM, Adam Nelson wrote:
I drove by a dead body this morning on the bypass between Wayaki way and Grevillea Grove. He was clearly beaten to death and been there for some time. We called an emergency line and ostensibly the police will come. On Ngong Rd across from Brew Bistro 2 weeks ago a boy was killed by a truck and his body lay on the side of the street for 2 hours (Ngong Rd, one of the busiest in town) before anybody official arrived at the scene.
How can it be expected that the Nairobi police handle one of the most complex hostage crises of the decade when they can't even respond to a dead body on the side of a major thoroughfare within 2 hours?
I visited Kigali 3 weeks ago and what it made me realize is that it's not an 'African thing' or a 'Developing World thing' that Nairobi is a disaster. It's a total lack of excellence at every level of government. Kigali is better run in every respect than Nairobi and for the most part, it just comes down to better management.
I'm not one for recriminations and at a time like this am mostly just sad. In the end, I'm an American and can't effect change here - it's up to Nairobians and Kenyans to say enough is enough and to demand that the public safety system be reformed.
1. A 911 (or 999) emergency call center 2. All police wearing ID numbers and equipped with a ticket book so they can write tickets 3. A new type of police with a different uniform that receive double pay but will be fired if found guilty of corruption 4. All police equipped with a mode of transportation (even just a mountain bike) 5. All police equipped with a radio
Is this too much to ask of a city that bills itself as the capital of anything?
-Adam
-- Kili.io - OpenStack for Africa: kili.io Musings: twitter.com/varud <https://twitter.com/varud> About Adam: www.linkedin.com/in/adamcnelson
On Wed, Sep 25, 2013 at 10:18 AM, Dennis Kioko <dmbuvi@gmail.com> wrote:
A Standard article explains how disorderly and dangerous the operation was, Kenyans troops killed each other, and endangered the lives of hostages in a haphazard operation.
The familiar shoot to kill order was given out http://t.co/M5tJ67KcPk
Sent from my Windows Phone ------------------------------ From: robert yawe <robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk> Sent: 25/09/2013 08:29 To: Dennis Kioko Mbuvi <dmbuvi@gmail.com> Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Subject: [kictanet] Incompetence gallore
Editorial from a Saudi Paper
- Something wrong in Kenya
There can be no denying the extraordinary challenges facing the Kenyan government. Yet as the last terrorists were being rooted out of Nairobi?s Westgate shopping mall at the end of a slaughter spree that has killed some 70 people and injured hundreds more, the Kenyan authorities need to be asking themselves some hard questions.
This is a country which because it is actively involved in combating Al-Shabab terrorists in Somalia is supposed to be on the very highest state of alert. Kenya did not choose this confrontation. In 1998 it was an amiably corrupt and easygoing country with merely a nasty record of armed robberies, mostly of rich Western tourists.
Then Al-Qaeda launched one of its very first international attacks, a deadly assault on the US embassy in the Kenyan capital which left 224 people dead the great majority of them Kenyans. Thereafter, there was a succession of small attacks by the Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Shabab which culminated in raids on Kenyan coastal tourist resorts and a Somali refugee camp, targeting and kidnapping foreigners.
It was the final straw. Nairobi sent troops into Somali striking Al-Shabab fighters in the rear as they were pressed from the north by African Union forces. Thereafter, the terrorists resorted to low-level violence, mostly hit and run grenade attacks across the Somali border, until the attack by some 15 heavily armed men on the supposedly well-guarded up-market Westgate shopping center. The attackers managed to negotiate their way with all their weaponry through the capital?s roadblocks. They contrived to organize their deadly assault without the Kenyan intelligence services picking up the slightest inkling of what was about to happen.
Something has got to be wrong somewhere. And the closer one looks at the way the tragic events unfolded, the more difficult questions it seems that the Kenyan authorities have to answer. Why for instance did it take almost half an hour for the first properly armed and equipped teams to arrive at the shopping mall? Why was there no proper building evacuation scheme nor any obvious plan to respond to a terrorist outrage within the complex?
Acts of bravery by shopping center staff, individual police officers and ordinary members of the public cannot mask what appears to have been a series of bungles by all those who should have been responsible for the safety of the complex and its visitors. Journalists noted that when heavily-armed special forces arrived, some seemed nervous and confused, perhaps as a result of the shouting that could be heard from senior officers who themselves seemed poorly briefed and unprepared and as a result unsure of how best to proceed. The inevitable report into this horrific event may find that by delaying a rapid and firm response to the attack, the authorities permitted the terrorists to continue their killing spree and also allowed them to consolidate their position within the mall.
Perhaps a clue to what went so disastrously wrong at the Westgate mall can be found in the devastating fire at Nairobi?s Jomo Kenyatta International Airport last month. Though the blaze broke out in the early morning, meaning no one was killed, the extent of the fire and the extraordinary delays in getting fire appliances to the scene raised major questions about the competence of the Kenyan authorities. The Westgate tragedy must compound these serious concerns.
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