# Outer Ring Road traffic: the road that skips the city.

By Kenneth Gathogo, founder of Rada. Reviewed by Carolyne Macharia. Updated 19 October 2026.
Source: https://rada.solidcreatives.co.ke/traffic/outer-ring-road/

Thika Road at one end, the airport at the other, and most of Eastlands in between. It is the one major Nairobi road that is busy in both directions at once, and the reason for that is the reason it is useful. Below: how to use it, and notes from Rada’s founder on driving it.

## What I see on this road

I mostly drive Outer Ring Road on weekends. There is traffic all through the day, and when there is an accident the traffic is crazy.

The service lanes are always busy because of matatus, especially if you are turning into Donholm or Umoja. Still, when the main road jams, I use the service lane.

## The only major road that is not a spoke

Almost every road in this guide runs from the suburbs towards the CBD. Outer Ring Road does not. It runs across them, from Thika Road at Allsops down through Kariobangi, Umoja and Donholm to Mombasa Road near the airport, crossing Juja Road, Jogoo Road and Kangundo Road on the way.[1]

Since its upgrade to a dual carriageway with service lanes, footbridges and proper interchanges, it does two jobs at once. It is the **local artery for a very large population**, serving Kariobangi, Umoja, Donholm, Kayole, Embakasi and Pipeline. And it is a **working bypass** for anyone travelling between the Thika Road side and the airport or Mombasa Road who would otherwise have to go in through town and back out again.

That second job is the one most drivers underuse. If your trip starts on one radial road and ends on another, this road usually beats the city centre by a wide margin, even when it is busy, because it is not queueing to get through the same narrow CBD everyone else is.

## When it jams

Because it is not radial, this road does not have a clean inbound morning and outbound evening. It is **busy in both directions in both peaks**, from about **6 to 9am** and again in the evening, and rarely empty in between. Some of that traffic is heading for Thika Road and town, some for Jogoo Road and town, and some for the airport and the industrial areas, so the flows cancel out rather than reversing.

Weekends are busy too, driven by church, market and shopping traffic rather than commuting. Drivers who only ever use the road on weekdays are regularly caught out by it.

Airport-bound trips deserve extra care here. The southern end feeds directly into the airport approaches, so a delay at the Taj Mall end has a habit of turning a comfortable margin into a missed check-in.

## Where it jams

- **Allsops and the Thika Road junction:** the northern anchor, and busy for the same reasons Thika Road is busy there.
- **Baba Dogo and Kariobangi:** industrial turns plus dense local traffic and stage activity.
- **The Kariobangi junction:** a major turning movement with heavy pedestrian crossing.
- **The Jogoo Road junction:** where two very heavy public-transport corridors meet.
- **Umoja and Manyanja Road:** estate traffic joining and leaving in quick succession.
- **Greenspan and Donholm:** retail turns on top of commuter volume.
- **Taj Mall and the Eastern Bypass junction:** the southern anchor, where Outer Ring, the Eastern Bypass and the airport roads all meet. The single most consequential point on the road.
- **Airport North Road and the Mombasa Road tie-in:** the last stretch, shared with airport and freight traffic.

## Alternatives that actually help

- **Eastern Bypass:** the same job, further out. If you are travelling between Thika Road and the airport and both ends of your trip are towards the outside of the city, this is usually the quicker of the two.
- **Kangundo Road:** for Kayole, Komarock and Ruai, joining Outer Ring at a single point rather than running along it.
- **Jogoo Road:** the better choice if you genuinely are going into the CBD rather than across.
- **North Airport Road:** the direct airport approach once you are at the southern end.
- **The service lanes:** an option when the main carriageway jams, though they are busy with matatus too, especially at the turns into Donholm and Umoja.

## How Outer Ring Road closures get announced

Planned works and diversions come from **KURA**[2] and **Nairobi County**,[3] with **KeNHA** involved where the road meets the trunk network at Thika Road and Mombasa Road. **NTSA** and the traffic police cover incidents, and anything affecting the airport approaches may also come from the airport authority.

The practical gap is the junctions. A closure or an incident at Taj Mall or Allsops affects far more people than the road it happens on, because both are handover points between major routes. By the time a notice appears, the queue behind it is already several kilometres long.

## Sources

1. Outer Ring Road, Nairobi, Wikipedia. Length, route, and the roads it connects. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outer_Ring_Road,_Nairobi
2. Kenya Urban Roads Authority. Responsible for urban roads. https://kura.go.ke/
3. Nairobi City County. Responsible for city roads. https://nairobi.go.ke/