Kihara tragically lost his life early Sunday morning in a road accident near Mang’u High School along Thika Road, after his vehicle collided with a lorry and caught fire.
These figures indicate a slight increase in road fatalities compared to the same period last year when 3,151 people lost their lives in traffic accidents.
He said the collision involved a matatu and a pickup truck, with one vehicle travelling towards Nairobi and the other heading towards Meru.
The bus, which was headed to Mombasa from Kisumu City, lost control, ramming into barriers and other vehicles before rolling into a ditch.
The crackdown will target several key issues, including vehicles that are overloaded, speeding, and vehicles in poor mechanical condition.
In the first week of July alone, 101 people died in road crashes across the country.
According to the WHO, Kenya has Africa's fifth-highest rate of road traffic deaths.
411 lives were lost in road crashes, a reduction from 439 in 2023.
Many pedestrians prefer shortcuts, such as jumping over ditches to cross roads, instead of using existing footbridges
Human behaviour, including speed limit violations, fatigue, negligence, and pedestrian-related incidents, remains a leading cause of accidents
Witnesses said that after the accident, residents scrambled for free sacks of muguka, stealing about 500 of them before the police arrived.
The National Transport and Safety Authority data which captures road statistics between January 1 to April 30, 2024, reveals that Nairobi recorded 176 fatalities from road crashes.
According to NTSA, unknown vehicles accounted for 219 of the crashes while 24 were the number recorded by motor vehicles owned by the government.
Murkomen stressed the need for drivers and all road users to exercise caution, particularly in safeguarding the lives of students.
The collision occurred when the Subaru Forester attempted to overtake another vehicle, resulting in a head-on collision with the Toyota Sienta.
The president says the laxity has led to impunity, which has contributed to an increase in the high-risk behaviours behind accidents.
President William Ruto says a sharp focus would be on designated high-risk corridors and urban areas.
The approach stresses the need for shared responsibility in the prevention of road crashes and in the actions taken after the crash.
CS Murkomen said the government will deploy state-of-the-art speed cameras along major highways, with a focus on notorious hotspots such as the Mombasa-Malaba Highway.
Since the beginning of the year, over 1,000 Kenyans have lost their lives in road accidents, with pedestrians being the most affected.