The Overtaking Procedure, and the Two Techniques

Overtake on the right — with exceptions covered in the next sub-topic. Before you commit to any overtake, two conditions must both be true: you can see the entire distance the manoeuvre needs, and that distance is completely free of obstructions and oncoming traffic. If you can't confirm both, you don't overtake. It's that simple.

The step-by-step procedure:

1. Move out slightly to the right so you can see whether the road ahead is genuinely free of oncoming traffic. Don't commit yet — this is a look, not the start of the manoeuvre.
2. Check that nobody is about to overtake you first: rear-view mirror → right side mirror → right blind spot — turn your head, don't rely on mirrors alone.
3. Indicate right.
4. Increase your speed (within the limit) and steer out, keeping plenty of distance from the vehicle you're passing.
5. Once fully past, indicate left and return — but not too early. The rule of thumb: move back only once you can see the overtaken vehicle in your left side mirror. Returning too soon risks clipping the vehicle you just passed.

Two ways to execute it:

• Accelerating overtake — you're behind the vehicle at matching speed, then pull out and build speed to pass. The usual technique in stop-start town traffic, like passing a matatu that's just pulled away from a stop.
• Flying overtake — you approach at higher speed and move out in good time before drawing level, passing in one continuous movement. Shorter total distance, less fuel — but it needs a longer, clearer stretch to judge from further back, which suits open highway far better than congested town roads.