Road carnage is a perennial problem that continues to defy efforts to enhance safety for motorists, their passengers and pedestrians. The establishment of the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) was meant to drive the campaign to make roads safer, but it has made little progress.
Traffic police continue to gain notoriety for bribery and extortion and failing to enforce the rules and regulations to make the roads safer. In the first nine months of this year, 3,369 Kenyans have perished in road accidents, translating into 374 people in a month or 12 every day. In recent years, the average annual death toll has been 3,000.
Last year, though, 4,324 people died and at least 10,769 others were seriously injured. The tragedy of the road slaughter is shocking. Of the deaths, 1,281 were pedestrians, 825 motorcyclists, 654 passengers, and 281 drivers.
The human loss is utterly numbing and so is the economic cost. And it may be worse, as the NTSA statistics only capture the incidents reported to the police.
To address the road carnage, the NTSA is implementing a five-year National Road Safety Action Plan 2024 -2028. The alarming rate of road accidents not only shatters families, but also poses a serious economic burden.
For its part, the Kenya National Highways Authority (KeNHA) has proposed measures to inculcate a culture of road safety in youth through a curriculum module in schools. Reckless driving is one of the main causes of accidents.
The enforcement of traffic rules and a crackdown on errant drivers are crucial. However, they will not fully change the bad driving culture countrywide. This is, however, possible in the long run by inculcating road safety awareness in youth through the formal education system.
Also, as happens in the developed countries, the NTSA plans to improve road safety data collection and analysis to help rein errant drivers by having their licences suspended or revoked. As has been confirmed, traffic police roadblocks are more of “ATMs” for the extortionist officers that contribute little to enforcing traffic rules and regulations. A road safety culture must be promoted.
