Skip to main content

LET'S GO DRIVING!

For the longest time I have wanted to be behind the wheel very much. I could not imagine a scenario where I never get to have my driving license. Over time I managed to convince one or two people to let me get their cars out of parking, I managed to get away with driving into the garage door once in our compound its safe to say that I was forgiven. About three months ago I started my driving classes but maybe to start off I can paint a picture of what it takes to take driving classes as aperson with a disability in Kenya.
- Only Rocky Driving school offers the driving classes for those with disabilities.
- The class is 'Class H'( named 'Invalid Carriages' )
-  These classes are only offered in their Nairobi offices specifically Industrial Area and Westlands
- The Package of about Ksh.12,500 includes a drop-off and pick-up from the place of your convinience.
- Before taking your driving test, you MUST see a driving assessor at Kenyatta National Hospital ( the only one in Kenya) which will cost you some Ksh. 4,000.
-You take your driving lessons and test using a modified vehicle where you can either use the foot controls or the hand controls.
- There are only two driving instructors for Class H, one who is under training.

 On day one of my practicals, I must have looked very confident because my instructor led me onto Mombasa Road which is among the bussiest highways in kenya. That was pretty amazing and there was no looking back. Went went on to explore Langata Road and the greater South C estate.
Towards the end of my driving school experience, my usual fun instrutor went on leave and I was left with the other instructor to take me through the last week leading to the driving test. Before we had gone 500 metres, he had given me enough peptalk about how I shouldn't be afraid on  the road. Something was against the hand control and it was on brake the whole time and I drove like that till we got to the offfice and that was the most stressful day I had wishing my instructor could come back fast!
I met some very nice officers at the station where I went to take the test and I passed!
Am now a certified Kenyan driver under Class H.
For those of you wondering whether it is stressful, I will tell you to have fun with it once you decide to take the lessons.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Tell the African Story

Monday Blues That Monday had been the most difficult day I had had and I have had so far, I had been stuck all day trying to sort out a personal issue and I was dealing with the most difficult and demeaning people I’ve had the pleasure of meeting in my life, my phone’s battery was drained so I had switched off the data option around midday. When I got home, by habit I plugged in the phone, waited for it to come on and turned on the data as I went to get rid of the layer of dirt and sweat. I was so tired and not really in the mood to eat, but I knew for a fact I wouldn’t survive the night seeing that a single banana is all I had eaten for lunch. Missed calls, text messages, Twitter notifications, new emails, updated applications, WhatsApp messages, my notification panel was overflowing! For some reason that day, emails got priority and there it was “Congratulations! You were chosen in the 2015 Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders” To say I got confused is a

Disability acceptance and inclusion lessons from my Cûcû

In loving memory, ûromama kwega kuuraga  It is going to be 3years this 20th of August since you left us and I’m only just now being able to put this down. To write you into the world. To go back to writing on here. We shared so many unspoken truths that made me feel so so safe around you I have vague memories of carrying one litre water containers when my 6year old agemates were carrying ten litre and five litre ones  The small bundles of napier grass, handfuls probably when they carried bundles that weighed them down You made sure I had a bundle to carry or a container of water  You made it feel okay for me to come early in the morning to get my mandatory 5litres of water for washing the classrooms instead of having to carry them the estimated 5kilometres walk to school at 7/8years I’m the age before mobile phones, I would be tired at the end of my school day and walk to your home less than 10minutes away instead of the slightly more than 30minutes brisk wal
Social media alone cannot be enough to create awareness, hence we need mainstream media. General advocacy alone may not make the challenges of living with a progressive muscle degenerative condition well understood so once in a while we resort to self advocacy ( putting yourself on a pedestal) so that the lives and experiences of other people can be easier than yours. Questions are welcome :-)