Driving on the Left

One of the tricks when you first get used to driving on the left is to follow another car, and also remember that the center line should be on the same side as the driver.

In Kenya, cars drive on the left hand side of the road. It’s a legacy of the British colonial rule. Some people will (half) jokingly tell you that cars drive all over the road here. It’s partly true. It’s not that unusual to encounter a car heading straight at you in your lane, coming from the other direction. There is a tendency to pass on blind curves and hills, especially on the part of matatu drivers, who have a well-deserved reputation for terrible driving. And there’s the occasional, confused expat.

I was pretty nervous about driving on the left, initially, even though other newcomers had told me it wasn’t very hard. It does help a lot to drive a car designed for left-side driving. We once drove a French rental car in England, and that was truly terrifying. There are several helpful tricks, too, which had been shared with us. One is to remember that the center line should always be on your right, or on the driver’s side. Of course, this presumes that the road has a center line, which is not always the case. Another is to follow other cars, which is easier when there’s plenty of traffic. But, what we found best for us was simply to keep saying to ourselves, “I’m driving on the left, I’m driving on the LEFT.” I know it sounds goofy, but it’s surprisingly effective.  It’s particularly helpful when you are coming out of a parking spot, and need to make sure you get launched in the right direction.

In the end, we both picked up left-side driving pretty quickly – in a matter of days. However, other associated habits have been harder to change. Looking over your left shoulder when you back up is really counter intuitive. And it's hard to remember which way to look when you are crossing the street as a pedestrian. Shifting gears with the left hand takes getting used to. Remembering to enter the car on the front right side as a driver (or on the left as a passenger) really takes time to master. We still mix that one up. But the craziest is keeping straight which side of the steering wheel has the turn signal or the windshield wiper command. There’s less consistency here. Cars from Japan have the turn signal on the right and wipers on the left, whereas those from Britain have it reversed. We have one of each, so often wipe the windshield to signal a turn.

As we master life on the left, there’s also a whole new vocabulary to learn. Again, this is associated with the British influence in Eastern Africa. Much of the car-connected terminology is British English. So, you fill the car with petrol rather than gas, store things in the boot rather than trunk, and clear off the windscreen instead of a windshield. 

As for converting the price of petrol from shillings to dollars, or liters to gallons, don't bother trying. Fuel here is expensive and the gas stations often run out. That's all you really need to know.