Royal Mail
Evaluation of Vehicle Maintenance Systems with Recommendations
Kenya, August 06
The assignment was part of a project to develop a District Based Transport System for Health in the Coast and North East Provinces of Kenya. This is Transaid’s input into a major DANIDA (Danish Government) project to make health services more effective, accessible and affordable. DANIDA has pledged funding for vehicles for the Ministries of Health in these Provinces and Transaid’s job is to ensure that the vehicles are going in to a managed system, where drivers, transport officers, nurses and other personnel have the skills to manage, operate and maintain the vehicles.
Royal Mail was asked to identify two volunteers to evaluate vehicle maintenance systems and procedures and recommend how they can be improved to get best value for money and keep the existing and new vehicles on the road. Mick Whelan and Mike Kington were keen to take up the challenge and spent two weeks in Kenya. Here’s Mick’s account of their time there.
Day 1 - Our first full day in Kenya. We’re based in Mombasa, Kenya’s second city (although we met many people who thought it should be the first!), in Coast Province – Beautiful place, with beautiful views out to the Indian Ocean. On first impressions, not what we expected as it appears very affluent, but this is a tourist area. We meet Victor Mengot, Transaid’s Regional Programme Manager for a briefing. So far, everyone we’ve met has been extremely friendly and I already know a few words of Swahili.
Day 2 - The journey to central Mombasa showed us the bleaker side of the city. Most of the buildings were in complete disarray and the poverty we witnessed was shocking.
The first part of the assignment is revising the maintenance provision with the 5 main dealers in Mombasa, with a view to awarding the maintenance contract to one of them. The main challenge is going to be getting one dealer that will maintain the entire range of vehicles, which include Nissan, Toyotas and Isuzu station wagons, pick ups and minibuses.
The first day was spent reviewing the invoices from the local Mombasa dealers and we quickly identified some inconsistencies in pricing and anomalies of work that caused us concern, but this gave us items to base our questions on when we met the dealers and helped to formulate our strategy.
We also met Jan Borg, the Chief Health Advisor for the project, who explained the issues they are facing.
We learn where the vehicles are based, how many are in service and the optimum requirement. Although the original brief stated around 300 vehicles they have only found 100 vehicle and 30 motorcycles, and are seeking to reduce the fleet to around 80 and replace the entire fleet of motorcycles with 50-100 new ones.
Day 3 - We’re picked up at 8am in a Nissan Patrol, which broke down about ½ mile from the office. We pushed into a service station and diagnosed a fuel problem, so we walked through the town to the Ministry of Health building. This gave us an even greater insight into life in Mombasa as street vendors, beggars (many with disabilities) and homeless children continually approached us. It was a horrible feeling walking past without giving them any money - I shamefully looked straight ahead.
Visited 2 of the 5 maintenance providers being considered for out-sourcing. DT Dobie is a Nissan/Jeep/Mercedes dealership and Simba Colt is a Mitsubishi dealer. Both were very open about their service limitations and the problems they perceived, particularly with maintaining different vehicle makes.
The journey home was the usual adventure of getting through traffic. An interesting observation of Mombasa life is that people are generally laid back and relaxed when they walk, but put them in a vehicle and they become stock-car racing champions. Right of way is given to the first car or bus that can get into the gap in front!
Day 4 - We meet the Toyota agent, which went quite quickly as they had no interest in the maintenance of the entire fleet and were only prepared to maintain Toyotas. On the positive side they were the only provider to offer any support for motorcycles, maintaining Yamahas.
Day 5 - We visit the final two agents. CMC Land Rover were the most receptive to our requirements that we have encountered. Marshall’s were a Peugeot dealer and unlikely we would purchase any vehicles through them, although they were keen to offer a service for all the fleet once out of warranty.
Day 6 - We were due to visit a health centre in Taita Taveta, to the west of Mombasa today. This was to give us our first idea of what the journey is like to and from a location that had a fleet based at it. Unfortunately Mike was feeling quite ill and so we cancelled the journey, spending the morning writing up the previous day’s notes and working on our report.
Day 7 - Woke up early and watched the sun rise over the Indian Ocean from my balcony. I went for a walk along the beach and found out about a trip in a glass bottom boat, and decided to try and talk Mike into it. Mombasa beach is surrounded by a lagoon made by a coral reef roughly ¼ mile off the shoreline. As we set sail, we could see the ocean floor was littered with sea urchins and huge starfish of all colours, which I got a closer look at snorkelling.
Back at the hotel I sat in the bar and, as the sun passed over the hotel and put the area in front of the beach bar to shade, it reminded me of my back garden at home, and I started to feel a little homesick. I find I’m having too much time alone to think about my wife and kids, and am starting to miss them immensely.
Dinner was a barbeque and Mike’s appetite was starting to get back to normal, which was good to see. We enjoyed a floorshow, which was a dance group with traditional musicians, and I’m afraid to say I was up dancing. I was quite surprised that when the dancer asked me to go slower in Swahili (Poli Poli), I actually understood her!
Day 8 - We wake up at dawn and get an early breakfast before setting off on a fishing trip. As traditional with Whelan fishing trips, we caught just the one – a kingfish.
We meet with Victor later that afternoon to get the plan for tomorrow’s trip to Garissa in North East Province.
Day 9 - Victor and our driver, Ben Nzue, pick us up to begin the journey to our first stop, Malindi Hospital. The roads were not too bad and the scenery was green and quite fertile. We reached Malindi at 10.30 and had a look around the vehicles they were operating. The fleet of 5 looked to be in pretty poor shape but all operational. The Malindi drivers had already received their training, which covered vehicle checks, but we still found a tyre that was worn down to the core on an operational ambulance. This lifesaver had turned into a potential deathtrap. Victor returns from a meeting with the administrator to find that the operational data he’d requested, on odometer readings, maintenance costs etc, had not been collated.
We depart for Hola, the main hospital in Tana River district, on the way to Garissa. 30 minutes out of Malindi the road turned to rubble, mud & dust and slowed down our progress considerably. Most of the road had washed away, with vehicles having to make new tracks around parts of the road that had huge craters in them. At stages there were concerete culverts with drainage pipes which would have been below the surface of the road when it was built, but now they were barriers you had to drive around. It was unbelievable to see motive units pulling 4 axle trailers down this stretch.
At Hola Hospital we got our first sight of a vehicle graveyard. There were three vehicles either completely stripped or up on bricks. These would have been on the books as operational before the Transaid project began. Victor also noticed a motorcycle that had not been part of the original fleet, but had been left behind by UNICEF, who had no more use for it. Part of the problem that the Ministry of Health have is that this vehicle will not be maintained unless it breaks down, as it doesn’t appear on any fleet list.
The road from Hola to Garissa was constructed on compacted mud & gravel, with no more than ½ inch of tarmac on the top, and was no match for the large vehicles travelling on them. The highlight of the journey was seeing a herd of 5 zebras run across the road, followed by monkeys and impala. What a sight - you don’t get this on the M4! We check into the Prestige Hotel, have a beer then call it a night.
Day 10 - We meet the head of the Automotive & Engineering Department at Garissa Polytechnic. The purpose of the visit was to identify whether they could maintain not only the MoH vehicles but also other government department’s vehicles and, if so, what equipment they would need. We found that all they currently had was a classroom with some old equipment (a lathe, a couple of pillar drills etc), and two vehicles outside held up on bricks which they were using to get components to use in the classroom for practical work.
Despite the lack of facilities they had 4 teachers available, 40 students, who were either secondary or post secondary school age, and the ambition to get a proper facility up and running to service the ministry and the local community if possible. But, if we consider using the polytechnic for Ministry work, the tool shortage problem needs to be redressed. We donated a couple of multi-meters, some calculators and pads and pens, but hope this wasn’t the last of the support.
We return to the Provincial Medial Building where we were asked to give a second opinion on a vehicle that had recently been returned from a repairer in Mombasa after being there for 2 years. The vehicle was over 15 years old and was supposed to have been completely overhauled. The estimates came to nearly 700,000 shillings (£5,600) and therefore the vehicle should have been disposed of rather than repaired. We were unable to establish who had authorised the repair or what work had or had not been done though, from a quick check around, we did find evidence of poor workmanship and could only agree with the ministry’s engineering department that the work was substandard.
Next stop was the local bush mechanic ‘Jua Kali’ workshop, which currently performs all the repairs for the ministry, including police vehicles. Jua Kali means, literally, hot sun and is the local name given to people who work with metal or wood for a living. We met Vincent, the owner, who it transpired also owned the bar we were using.
The workshop was more of a scrapyard and it was impossible to determine which vehicles were being repaired and which were not. We saw a MoH Toyota Landcruiser that was being repaired after an accident. The vehicle had rolled over, killing the driver and injuring the 6 passengers. The cause? One of the tyres, which were all of different makes and sizes, had blown out. The vehicle was so badly damaged that it should never have been put back on the road, a view which Toyota shared but the local Jua Kali believed he could repair so the Chief Health Advisor had agreed.
The idea is to introduce a planned maintenance schedule for the vehicles in North East Province using the Polytechnic when it was up and running (which will be at least a year), but in the meantime use the Jua Kali. Although I would avoid this if at all possible, this seemed to be the only option, so we would have to introduce a robust quality checking procedure.
We met up with the Chief Health Advisor and successfully talked him out of repairing the Landcruiser. If I achieve nothing else during this trip I’ll be more than happy knowing I prevented that death trap going back into service.
Day 11 - At breakfast, the Chief Health Advisor meets us to tell us he’s realised he has another Landcruiser that is beyond economic repair for mechanical problems, and could the Jua Kali use the parts from the damaged on to make one good vehicle out of the two. I was still concerned about the quality of the work, but I couldn’t offer any other alternative.
On the journey to our next destination, Kitui Polytechnic, we see a lot of nomadic people moving their herds of camels, goats or donkeys to the watering holes of to market. The terrain became much more hilly and the people changed to farmers, with the hills terraced to allow them to grow crops.
Ben, our driver, is from Kitui and his mother, wife and family live on their ancestral smallholding. As the youngest of 3 sons, by tradition he was expected to stay at home to look after his family. He has 5 children of his own and, due to the deaths of his older brother and sisters, he now looks after a total of 13 children. Ben is currently based in Mombasa for DANIDA and so, every second Friday, he takes the 12 hour overnight bus journey from Mombasa to Kitui to visit his family for the weekend and, on Sunday takes the same journey back to be at work on Monday morning.
On the way to the Polytechnic we stopped off at Ben’s farm to visit his family and were made most welcome. Every child that was introduced was also asked to tell us which year at school they had just completed, and you could see how proud Ben was, not only of their achievements, but that he was managing to support all of them through their school years. In Kenya tuition is free through primary school, although you still have to pay for books & pencils, school uniform and transport, but you have to pay for secondary school education which is why a lot of children drop out at that stage. Therefore for Ben to get all his children through will be a remarkable achievement.
The Nzue family make bricks from clay, raise a small number of livestock and grow a small range of crops. Although to our western standards, this family’s home & lifestyle would be looked upon as abject poverty, there were very proud of what they had achieved and all seemed very happy and content with their life. Sometimes it takes days like this to realise just how lucky you are!
At Polytechnic, we met the assistant manager, Mr Mumo. DANIDA had built them a garage over 10 years ago and it was now a thriving business that employed 4 mechanics and was used as a training facility for the students. The purpose of building this workshop was to supply good quality maintenance to all ministry vehicles, including to the MoH, and was part of a larger project to provide aid to this part of Kenya. Unfortunately this stopped soon after the Danida project had ended and the vehicles went back to being maintained by the local ‘Jua Kali’ workshops. This was a real shame as the workshop and equipment had been maintained well over the years and they were very capable of providing a quality service at less cost.
After the tour of the whole Polytechnic we donated another couple of multi-meters as a thank you for their time and left to book into the Parkside Hotel.
Day 12 - We got on the road for the 550km journey back to Mombasa, which should have taken about 7 hours. We passed over the vast plateau that stretches from the south of Kenya to Ethiopia, where we were rewarded which the most fabulous views of the Eastern Province. We pass through some of the national parks, seeing a lone giraffe, a couple of ostriches, and some more baboons. The scenery was more of the savannah type of land that I expected to find in Kenya, fairly flat with a mountain range in the distance. Ben spotted his brother, Joe, at the entrance to the national park that he worked in. Joe was a ranger, like his father before him, and his son also had ambitions to follow in his father’s footsteps. The Kenyan people have a tremendous approach to family and are all extremely happy to see one another whenever they meet.
At around 6pm we ran out of road and started the arduous journey down what was left of the old road. There was a large amount of large goods vehicles coming to & from the port at Mombasa and most of them were overloaded, and had defective lights & tyres. Before long it started to rain and, as it became dark, the road deteriorated and the traffic backed up. This final leg of the journey I can only describe as frightening. A lot of vehicles had no lights and were in complete disrepair. We even saw one vehicle with two different size wheels bolted to the same hub.
At one point we were following a fuel tanker that had no lights, and on the rear axle it had the near-side inner wheel missing. As the oncoming traffic sought to find a route through the potholes the tanker slid sideways off the road into the gravel stretch that ran beside it. We could not understand how it didn’t turn over. We also were forced into the gravel stretch and at one point we thought we had grounded the vehicle. After a few moments of dread Ben powered us out, much to our relief. The journey continued in the traffic, with vehicles under & overtaking into any gap they could find, and we passed vehicles broken down or on their side until we reached a clear road in Mombasa itself. It was no wonder to us that there are so many deaths from road traffic accidents in Kenya. We took a few beers to relax from, but not forget, what we’d seen on the roads.
Day 13 - The final briefing with Jan Borg took place and went well, with a lot of the ideas & recommendations being well received.
In the long term, we propose that Polytechnics in both provinces are used for all Ministry of Health work. This will involve building a maintenance facility at the Garissa Polytechnic modeled on the one at Kitui. In the short term, we propose that the lecturers quality check the work that the Jua Kali undertake.
We discovered that poverty can lead to corruption and if someone can take control of procedures for vehicle maintenance within the Ministry a great many problems will be addressed. With this in mind, the creation of a Fleet Engineer’s role seems to be of paramount importance.
Our other recommendations include a centrally managed maintenance plan, purchasing policy and replacement plan, the introduction of on-site maintenance at key locations and fixing prices for all scheduled maintenance.
Jan informed us that he had already placed the order for 50+ new vehicles and we agreed to get the final report back to him within 2 weeks.
In Kenya, particularly in the Coastal region where the attitude is very much ‘Poli Poli’ (slowly slowly), the problems of corruption, the social & health problems and poverty seem insurmountable. One of the most difficult challenges to overcome is to convince people that their understanding of the problems & issues are clouded by their own preconceptions, and that there actually are possible alternatives.
We spent the rest of afternoon at the beach bar, discussing our time in Kenya and who would do what part of the report when we got home.
Day 14 - Woke up before dawn on our last day in Kenya to find another overcast day, and set off for my last walk down the beach. After a fairly uneventful last day we left early for airport. We both desperately want to see our families.
Day 15 - Slept for most of the journey back and finally got home about 9:30 in my new Kenyan shirt and greeted my family in Swahili - ‘Jambo’!
