Roads of death: Those we lost in under 72 hours
Medics prepare to airlift to Nairobi a survivor of the Monday accident that claimed the lives of 11 Kenyatta University students on March 18.
What you need to know:
- It has been three days of bloodbath on the roads, pointing to a systematic problem that could get worse if not addressed.
- Transport CS Kipchumba Murkomen has outlined a raft of measures aimed at bringing sanity on roads and saving lives.
In the past 72 hours, the country has lost at least 25 lives with scores others injured in multiple road accidents that would have otherwise been avoided.
The latest occurred at Maungu on the Nairobi-Mombasa highway on Monday evening, leaving 11 students of Kenyatta University dead.
On Saturday, three deaths were reported across the country. Two people were killed while several students at Kapsabet Boys High School sustained injuries after the bus they were travelling in crashed along the Kabarnet-Marigat road.
The dead were a teacher and a student.
The same day on the Ndenderu-Ruaka road in Kiambu County, popular TikToker Brian Chira died in a hit-and-run incident involving a speeding lorry around 4am.
The accident scene at Patkawanin, along the Kabarnet- Marigat road where learners of Kapsabet Boys High School were involved in a road accident.
On Monday at least 16 lives were lost in a span of hours.
Five people died on the spot and 18 others were injured after a matatu collided with a tractor at Salaek village on the Bomet-Kiptagich road.
A few hours later, a bus carrying 54 Kenyatta University students on an academic trip to Malindi, a lab technician, a student leader and two drivers was involved in a road accident.
Yesterday morning, another fatal accident occurred along the Migori-Rongo highway at Kuja Bridge, claiming an unconfirmed number of people with reports pointing to between six and 11.
In Chaka on the Nyeri-Nanyuki highway, a Kenya National Highways Authority (Kenha) employee was killed and his colleague left nursing injuries after they were run over by a lorry.
According to Traffic Commandant Mary Omari, the accident occurred after the driver declined to stop after being flagged down by traffic police officers and the Kenha officials, who had put up a temporary weighbridge at the area.
The driver is said to have sped past the scene, running over the two Kenha staff.
It has been three days of bloodbath on the roads, pointing to a systemic problem that could get worse if not addressed.
The latest data from the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) shows that, between January and February 20, 2024, at least 649 people lost their lives across the country.
The statistics are an increase compared to the 623 recorded during the same period in 2023.
In its draft National Road Safety Action Plan 2023-2027, NTSA says a number of national and county government agencies are currently too underfunded to deliver safety-related services.
These include the NTSA, Kenha, the National Police Service and county health authorities.
“The annual socio-economic losses in Kenya as a result of road crashes are estimated at more than Sh450 billion. There is a need to sustainably finance road safety programmes and cost-effective safety investments in Kenya over the next decade,” says the NTSA in the document.
According to the NTSA, many accidents occur on the Northern Corridor, which accounts for a high percentage of fatalities.
“Five roads in Nairobi County, representing two per cent of the road network, account for 36 per cent of all fatal crashes in the country,” said NTSA Director-General George Njao.
The five are Thika Road, Outering Road, the Mombasa-Nairobi highway, Eastern Bypass and Northern Bypass.
The road safety agency says that fatal crashes are highly concentrated in time. Twenty-six per cent of crashes in Nairobi (30 per cent nationally) occur between 7pm and 10pm.
Reacting to the spate of accidents, Transport Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen reversed a directive to bar NTSA officers from enforcing road safety rules.
“Having consulted with my Interior and National Coordination colleague, Prof Kithure Kindiki, we are going to establish a mechanism where the previous directive to remove NTSA from enforcement will be vacated and a collaborative regime between NTSA and NPS will be put in place for a more efficient enforcement,” Mr Murkomen said yesterday in a statement.
“You will be seeing a return of the NTSA working with traffic police to enforce traffic safety on our roads as soon as possible.”
In 2017, former President Uhuru Kenyatta announced the immediate withdrawal of NTSA officers from the roads, leaving the enforcement of traffic rules to the police.
“From now onwards, NTSA officers will not be on the roads as the responsibility to enforce the traffic regulations lies squarely on the police,” Mr Kenyatta had said at the time.
He had added that the responsibility of reducing road accidents lay with Kenyans, including drivers and pedestrians obeying all traffic rules, proper maintenance of vehicles, and respect for other road users.
The road safety authority had been on the spot following increased accidents that had killed many people, especially those using private vehicles.
The authority, which was established through an Act of Parliament, has since restricted its activities to its core functions which include implementing policies relating to road transport and safety.
Other functions include conducting research and audits on road safety, developing and implementing road safety strategies and regulating public service vehicles.
Quick recovery
Yesterday, Mr Murkomen said the country has in recent weeks witnessed a spate of road accidents, which he termed as “unacceptable”.
The CS condoled with the families and friends who have lost their loved ones and wished the injured a quick recovery.
A bus collides with a tri-cycle commonly known as tuk-tuk along Ahero-Awasi-Road.
“These accidents have caused unimaginable grief and suffering to the victims and their families,” the minister said.
Mr Murkomen added that his ministry is resolute in its commitment to ensuring safety on the roads.
At the same time, the CS outlined a raft of measures aimed at bringing sanity on the roads and saving lives, among them the return of NTSA officials back on the roads.
Others were driver re-testing, which will see drivers of all public service and heavy commercial vehicles reassessed.
Medical testing
The move had been suspended following an outcry from the matatu sector.
Mr Murkomen also ordered the NTSA to put in place measures for the implementation of medical testing of all drivers as required by Section 105A(1) and (2) and Rule 30(4) of the Traffic (Driving Schools, Driving Instructors and Driving Licence) Rules 202 before the issuance of new and renewal of driving licences to ensure that only medically fit drivers are licensed to drive.
The National Police Service and the NTSA were also ordered to intensify the ongoing nationwide crackdown on unroadworthy vehicles and those not integrated with the intelligent road safety management system for transmission of speed limiter data.
At the same time, Prof Kindiki announced that his ministry will convene an urgent meeting with the NTSA and other relevant bodies to curb rising cases of road accidents, a trend he described as worrying.
The CS, who spoke in Kisumu yesterday, said his ministry will spearhead a nationwide crackdown on traffic offenders as he cautioned traffic police officers against accepting bribes from lawbreakers.
“It is alarming that almost 4,000 people die every year through road accidents,” he said while presiding over the commissioning of Kisumu West Sub-county headquarters in Ojola.
“This year alone, we have already lost 1,000 people through road accidents. This is so far the worst we have witnessed compared to the number of people we lost during the two and a half years of Covid-19 pandemic which claimed about 5,000 lives,” said Prof Kindiki.
The CS further disclosed that, unlike last year when 3,900 people died as a result of road carnage, 4,650 lives were lost in 2022.
“We will soon come up with nationwide law enforcement measures against traffic offences like drink driving, driving unroadworthy vehicles among other offences to save people from dying every day,” he said.
He raised concerns over the increase in road fatalities in the country, saying, deaths from road accidents are competing with those caused by serious disease outbreaks.
“We had Covid-19, a terrible pandemic in two years, and the people who died out of the disease were over 4,000. Yet in one year alone, 4,324 died in road accidents. This means that this problem is worse than the pandemics,” he said.
“The road accidents are becoming a big problem and many lives are being lost across the country. On Monday we lost close to 20 people in separate incidents. Road accidents are becoming a major killer in our country.”
He pointed out that the crackdown will also target boda boda operators. The sector, the ministe noted, had continued to record increased cases of accidents.
“Many families have lost their loved ones and breadwinners, others have been left with lifelong scars while some have been forced to sell their lands to take care of medical bills,” he said.
Additional reporting by Victor Raballa, Shaban Makokha and Lucy Mkanyika
