State kicks off national crackdown to curb rising road carnage

A nationwide crackdown on violators of traffic laws, rogue drivers and unroadworthy vehicles, both private and commercial, begins immediately following increased cases of road carnage.

The crackdown will also target vehicles that are not integrated with the intelligent road safety management system for the transmission of speed limiter data.

On Monday, close to 20 Kenyans lost their lives in multiple accidents in the Rift Valley and the Coast, adding to the burgeoning list of road crash victims, a situation that Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki has equated to an epidemic.

"You are aware that yesterday we lost close to 16 people in two different accidents. In Bomet, we lost five and in Voi, 12. Road traffic accidents are becoming a major killer in our country. In fact, they are now equal to the epidemics we have had before," Kindiki said on Tuesday.

The Voi accident on the Olonguruone-Silibwet Road that involved a Kenyatta University bus and a truck claimed the lives of 11 students and left 46 injured.

Kindiki noted that the country loses an average of 4,000 people to road carnage annually, a number that has continued to rise over the last few years, with 3,900 deaths recorded in 2023 and 4,600 the year before.

"Others have, in the process, become disabled; others have gotten hospitalised, forcing families to sell properties to cater to their bills. Time has come for us as a country to crack down on all the errant drivers and unroadworthy motor vehicles and enforce traffic laws to the letter to avoid these needless deaths," he said.

He noted that today, road accident numbers are competing with epidemics in terms of the number of people the country is losing.

According to government statistics, the number of people who died of COVID-19 between 2020 and 2022 (two years and a half) was 4,600.

"Yet, for one year alone, we are losing 4,000 people to traffic accidents, meaning this problem is worse than epidemics even more serious than COVID-19," he said.

A Tuesday meeting between the Transport and Interior ministries resolved to kick off the crackdown to reduce the accident numbers.

In addition to the crackdown, Transport Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen announced further directives to cushion against losing more Kenyans on the roads.

They include the implementation of a recommendation by Justice David Maraga's committee on prison and police reforms for the vacation of a previous directive relieving the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) of the mandate to enforce traffic rules.

"A collaborative regime between the NTSA and the [National Police Service} NPS will be put in place for more efficient enforcement. You will be seeing a return of the NTSA working with traffic police to enforce public safety on our roads as soon as possible," said CS Murkomen.

At the same time, a delayed re-testing of the drivers of all passenger service and heavy commercial vehicles will commence immediately.

Also, the NTSA has been directed to conduct medical tests on all drivers before issuing them new or renewing their driving licences to ensure only the medically fit are licensed to drive.

"We will be merciless on everyone: motorists, drivers, bodaboda riders, pedestrians, motor vehicle owners, and enforcement officials. We must all work together to make sure we [curb] this problem," said Kindiki.