Transport Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen on Thursday urged Kenyans to give him more time to find a technological solution to the perennial road carnage in the country.
Speaking in Murang'a County where he was the chief guest at Our Lady Consolata Mugoiri Girls High School's prize-giving day, the CS argued that he was dealing with a mess that has been piling up since 1963.
He said that despite road accidents being "a matter of great concern and I am trying my best, we are already installing spy cameras along our roads and we have started...we know the results they are giving".
He said President William Ruto's administration was committed to streamlining the transport sector to realise its full potential and contribute more to national development.
"It is not just about road transport...as I have since met with the Kenya Association of Air Operators and assured them of my ministry's commitment to reform the sector. Key to the reforms we are pursuing is an aviation policy, a master plan for Jomo Kenyatta International Airport and Wilson Airport," he said.
The CS lamented that a perennial problem, the existence of which the government acknowledges, cannot be solved immediately, but once the reforms are implemented "we will be able to get instant insights into what is happening in vehicles...whether drivers are napping, speeding...or committing which traffic offence". He said the reforms are in an advanced stage.
"We are dealing with a problem of predecessor after predecessor until the time when my predecessor John Michuki managed to bring order to the sector," he said.
However, he added that Mr Michuki (now deceased) did not manage to completely clean up the sector.
“He managed to instil dignity on travelling…making sure passengers are 14 in matatus, have safety belts, no overcrowding…but did not succeed in reducing road carnage,” he said.
He said the challenge he was taking on was to find an answer to reducing road crashes that killed 3,609 people in 2023 and 649 in the first two months of 2024, with more than 30 deaths in the last two weeks.
“It is only enough to have police and the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) on the road carrying out crackdowns…It is important to employ technology that gives instant results,” he said.
He said the country is seeking a public-private partnership that will come up with an investor to put up cameras on the roads.
"You will get instant filings directly on your phones... This will in due course address the issue of road accidents," he said.
He said recklessness and negligence in maintaining vehicles was a major cause of road accidents "and the results are devastating even to me, especially when students are going home or back to school, I don't sleep".
He said he is always worried when he gets a message from the NTSA, "I always fear it is about an accident... I also appeal to our passengers to help us tackle the problem of rogue drivers".
He said the government would soon publish school transport regulations that would determine how pupils and school transport will be managed.
Mr Murkomen said the government will demand accountability from school administrations on how they manage their drivers, vehicles and maintenance of buses.
He said all school vehicles would be fitted with vehicle telematics tracking systems for real-time remote monitoring of the condition of vehicles and their drivers.
Opening, closing and mid-term breaks
However, the CS did not address the issue of school children relying on public transport to get to and from their educational institutions, especially during opening, closing and mid-term breaks.
Boarding schools, due to the variety of directions and distances, rely on public transport to get students to and from school.
Mr Murkomen said such intelligent transport systems are the panacea to road carnage and promised that the government will soon announce the standardisation of the technologies to be installed in the school buses and ensure that they are cost-friendly to make them affordable.
He said his ministry was working with the Ministry of Education as well as Safaricom to develop the ideal technological interventions "that will even allow the one monitoring them to know when the driver is about to doze off".
Mr Murkomen said: “This will mean that the schools will further be required to set aside control rooms with someone to constantly be on the lookout for danger aspects of the journey and call it off before an accident occurs”.
