Nairobi is Africa’s second most congested city in 2026, ranking behind only Lagos on the Numbeo Traffic Index published in March, with the average trip across town now taking 53.7 minutes. Separate TomTom data shows drivers lost 109 hours to traffic in 2025 alone, and Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja has publicly admitted his administration bears the blame for fixing it — while unveiling a Sh1 trillion underground rail plan he says will eventually make Nairobi a “20-minute city.”
How bad is Nairobi’s traffic, by the numbers?
Numbeo’s Traffic Index, which combines commute time, time wasted in jams, an inefficiency score and estimated CO2 output, placed Nairobi second among African cities as of March 2026:
| City | Africa rank | Traffic Index | Avg. commute (one way) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lagos, Nigeria | 1 | 348.5 | 68.3 min |
| Nairobi, Kenya | 2 | 253.5 | 53.7 min |
| Cairo, Egypt | 3 | 240.9 | 49.6 min |
TomTom’s own 2026 Traffic Index, which tracks a different methodology built on anonymised trip data rather than survey-style scoring, tells a similar story for Nairobi’s 2025 driving year: average congestion across the city sat at 49.6%, up 1.2 percentage points on 2024, and evening rush hour congestion hit 98.8%. A 10km drive that would take under 10 minutes with no traffic stretched to nearly 36 minutes between 5pm and 7pm. Across the year, TomTom calculated that a typical driver lost 109 hours — just over four and a half days — sitting in Nairobi traffic.
Why is Nairobi traffic so bad in 2026?
Both data sets point to the same root cause Nairobi officials themselves cite: a transport system built around private cars and matatus, with no mass rapid transit network to pull commuters off the road. The city’s road network has grown far more slowly than its vehicle population, and previous efforts to fix congestion by widening roads have tended to backfire by attracting more private car buyers rather than easing pressure.
What is Governor Sakaja doing about Nairobi traffic?
Speaking during a September 3 interview dubbed “Nairobi Baraza,” Sakaja singled out traffic as the one major problem residents have every right to blame squarely on his administration, distinguishing it from issues like garbage collection where he says residents also share responsibility.
“I think the one that they can properly [blame me for], because they have no role, is traffic,” Sakaja said, according to a transcript of the interview. He argued that road expansion alone will not solve the problem, pointing to Thika Road as an example: “The more roads you build, the more people buy cars. We did Thika Road, and everyone moved there.”
The Sh1 trillion underground metro plan
Sakaja’s proposed fix is a Nairobi Metropolitan Mass Rapid Transit System that folds together heavy rail, commuter rail, Bus Rapid Transit and non-motorised transport into one network. Its centrepiece, reported at a cost of roughly Sh1 trillion, is a 30-kilometre underground railway linking the densely populated Eastlands area to the Central Business District through a planned 25 stations.
Nairobi County has already approved development of two metro lines, including the underground one, and Sakaja says the project has cleared pre-evaluation and moved through Cabinet. No construction start date has been announced. The governor has framed the goal as turning Nairobi into a “20-minute city” where residents can reach essential services without a lengthy commute — an ambition, he noted, that dates back to a 1948 Nairobi master plan, a 1972 urban study and a 2014 master plan that were never implemented.
A nearer-term fix: KURA’s Sh10.8 billion smart-junction upgrade
While the underground line remains years away, the Kenya Urban Roads Authority has moved further along on a more immediate intervention. KURA opened international bidding this year for the second phase of the Nairobi Intelligent Transport System project, covering upgrades at 60 major junctions across the city: new traffic signal systems, 60 CCTV cameras, 13 vehicle detector systems, two variable message signs and 60 vehicle enforcement systems, plus construction of a new bridge and the extension of two existing ones.
The project is financed through an $83.8 million (about Sh10.8 billion) loan from South Korea’s Export-Import Bank under its Economic Development Cooperation Fund. Bids closed on August 4, 2026, and as of this month the Kenya Urban Roads Authority had not publicly announced a winning contractor. The design-and-build contract is expected to run 30 months once work begins.
FAQ: Nairobi traffic in 2026
Is Nairobi the most congested city in Africa?
No. Nairobi ranks second, behind Lagos, on Numbeo’s Traffic Index as of March 2026. Cairo, Johannesburg and Pretoria round out the rest of the continent’s five most congested cities.
How long is the average commute in Nairobi?
Numbeo puts the average one-way trip at 53.7 minutes. TomTom’s separate data found a 10km evening-rush-hour drive alone takes nearly 36 minutes, with average speeds dropping to about 16.7km/h.
When will Nairobi’s underground railway be built?
There is no confirmed construction start date. Governor Sakaja says the project has cleared pre-evaluation and Cabinet approval and that financing has been structured, but ground has not yet been broken.
What is the KURA smart traffic project?
It is a Sh10.8 billion Kenya Urban Roads Authority project to install smart traffic signals, CCTV cameras and other monitoring equipment at 60 Nairobi junctions, financed by a South Korean loan. Bids closed in August 2026 and a contractor had not been announced as of mid-September.
Nairobi’s transport authorities have moved on similar upgrades before: an earlier phase of the Intelligent Transport System project already put smart signals at some city junctions, part of a slow, multi-year push to modernise a road network that has struggled to keep pace with the capital’s growth. That earlier work sits alongside other Nairobi infrastructure pushes reported by 254.ke’s coverage of the capital’s data centre construction boom, and complements smaller rail projects such as the Riruta–Ngong rail line, designed to serve 10,000 commuters daily. Sakaja’s administration has also been pushing parallel urban renewal work, including a recent tour with Paris’s mayor of an 1,800-unit housing project in Ngara.
For now, Nairobi’s daily commuters are left navigating a road network that two independent data sets agree is the second-worst on the continent, with relief tied to infrastructure projects still years from completion.
By the 254.ke Newsroom.
