Hundreds of travellers are stranded on both sides of the busy Namanga border after Kajiado residents blocked the highway to protest over a missing taxi driver.

Kenya’s Maasai community in Kajiado on Monday at around 10am blocked the Athi River-Namanga road, linking Kenya and Tanzania, in an attempt to persuade the police to act on the alleged disappearance of a taxi driver, who is said to have been missing for over a month.

Patty Magubira, a journalist with The Citizen newspaper in Arusha, who is among the stranded travellers said that the angry residents lit fires on the highway, blocking traffic to and from Kenya and Tanzania.

"We are going to block this road until police tells us the whereabouts of our fellow taxi driver who was kidnapped about a month ago," Mr Magubira quoted one of the protesters as shouting.

Mr Magubira, who is travelling to Mombasa, said hundreds of tourists and local travellers stranded on either sides of the Namanga border were asking the Kenyan Government to act, with some fearing to miss their flight connections.

“Kenya government needs to do something to rescue helpless travellers who have nothing to do with the alleged missing taxi driver” he noted, adding that as of 2pm there were no police officers on sight to disperse the rioters.