Bibby Distribution
Driver assessor training
Kenya, July 2006
Transaid asked Bibby Distribution for assistance to its project to introduce a District Based Transport System for Health in Coast & North East Provinces in Kenya. It needed trainers to teach drivers employed by the District Health Authority to become driving assessors and put in place a higher standard of driving to improve efficiency and safety. Bibby Distribution kindly agreed to help and two personnel, Driver Development Manager, Brian Riddle and Regional Driver Trainer, Dave Smith, travelled to Kenya to undertake the training with drivers from both provinces in August 2006. Dave relates his experience.
Day 1: Flight at 1030hrs from Heathrow International for an 8½ hour flight to Jomo Kenyatta Airport, Nairobi then a 1 hour connection to Moi Airport, Mombassa.
Day 2: Plan the detail on the course and meet Transaid's Victor Mengot, where we get told what standards we will be teaching to. In the afternoon we visit the local government offices to meet the team. We find out very quickly the very poor state of the roads - a UK Council’s nightmare peppered with potholes.
Day 3: We start the course with 13 students. One of the students, Ezra, teaches a lesson on how to check the engine oil with his head firmly fixed under the bonnet and talking to the engine block! I decide to move the students away one by one, thinking I would get away with a few before Ezra noticed. Eventually I manage to move them all away with only Brian now stood listening – a useful lesson in class control as the students close by stifle laughter.
That evening I am told that I am the bad mizungo as firstly I hadn’t been to Africa before (Brian is on his 3rd trip) and secondly I didn’t smile. So from here on in I have a permanent smile, which starts to hurt after a few hours!
Day 4: Straight into the lessons, now introducing the driver assessing part of the course. We split the course into 3 groups covering Classroom Teaching, Driver Assessing and First Aid. This is badly needed as all attendees are ambulance drivers with no previous first aid training at all.
Brian teaches the students to ‘power’ with the pointing of either a finger or a magic pencil as a pointer or to indicate where to look, and the ‘power’ of never turning your back on the class. We often hear the students saying, “Use the power”; it was a really helpful tool for us to put a lesson across on both courses.
Day 5: Victor teaches the Kenyan Highway Code. Driver assessing has to be halted for a while as 3 camels in the middle of the road refuse to move.
Day 6: Last day of the course and test day, which starts with me losing part of my breakfast to the local rooks that look down on us from the pillars and beams surrounding us. We split the class into 2 groups and, when we finish, we compare results. I fail 2, Brain passes all his group. Re-tests are taken and then we go into the prize giving. Each student is presented with a certificate and an instructors’ book and the local District Assistant Head of Health was gives out the certificates.
Days 7 & 8: Rest and relaxation, looking out onto the Indian Ocean and bartering for local goods (not so relaxing!)
Day 9: We travel to our second destination, Malindi, around 200kms and 3 hrs north. The roads are terrible and the trip is a real eye opener seeing a bit of the outback and how people live in their small communities.
Day 10: Get shown our classroom, 10 students arrive. We start the same training we undertook in Mombassa with the new group.
Day 11: Our assessing route takes us through the town centre, where I’d seen 5 accidents in 1 hour. One involved a cyclist who got knocked off his bike on a roundabout, who just brushed himself off and went along his way. In another, a car drove into a pothole and half his car disappeared with 2 rear wheels completely off the ground around 4 feet in the air.
Day 12: A fairly uneventful day with lessons all going well and everyone still smiling.
Day 13: Test day, all goes very well with no fails and a fairly low key presentation.
Later that day we travel to Lamu - an island which only has 1 car and 2 roads, no bigger than a pavement. In 4 hours of traveling we experience a mini safari, seeing elephants, baboons and water buffalo. We then take a speedboat ride (the only way to get to the island) to Lamu.
Day 14: We look around Lamu before returning back to Mombassa for the flight back home the following day, and host the students for a farewell evening meal.
Day 15: Our last day. One of the students very kindly offers to show us around Mombassa and to introduce us to his family; very soon we are about to be to be humbled in a big way.
Stanslus has hired a car at his own expense. We share coconut juice with his family and Stan shows us the local sights, one being a 16th century fort called Fort Jesus, and we tour the old town. We take him back to the Hotel for lunch then he drives us to the airport. We both were glad we’d been able to give something back to Mombassa for showing us such friendship.
Looking back on the experience, we taught 23 drivers to teach a lesson and to assess other drivers and, where time permitted, gave some very helpful tips on driving. It was a big success and we made a lot of friends and, hopefully, a big impact on the project. I thoroughly enjoyed my time there, even though it was very hard work, and I know Brian feels the same way having discussed the trip. I would like to thank Brian for all his help, Victor for looking after us both, Transaid for giving us the opportunity and finally Bibby Distribution for very kindly releasing me from my normal work and giving me this memory of a lifetime.
