Kenyan roads have claimed more than sixty lives in separate tragic accidents across the country in the first week of the New Year.
The first week of 2013 has witnessed multiple tragic road accidents involving mainly public service passenger vehicles. Minutes after ushering in the New Year; a 14-seater matatu, trying to overtake a trailer, collided head-on with a bus killing eleven people on the spot. The accident happened at Salgaa on the Nakuru-Eldoret highway. Barely twenty-four hours after the incident, a matatu carrying twenty-one passengers plunged into a quarry near Molo in Nakuru, a few kilometers from Salgaa, killing eighteen passengers instantly. The accident was blamed on overloading, over-speeding and the absence of traffic police officers usually manning the section of the highway. This has caused public outrage directed towards the Traffic Police Department and the Ministry of Roads for negligence and corruption.
Newly appointed Inspector General of Police David Kimaiyo recently turned the heat on his officers, blaming his commanders for failing to enforce order on country’s roadways.
“The IG wishes to remind all police officers that failure to enforce traffic laws is one of the major areas targeted for reform and in the New Year, the effectiveness and civility of traffic law enforcement will be taken as a major indication on those commanders who wish to embrace police reforms and those who have chosen to remain in the past,” he said in a stern statement last Friday.
On Tuesday, four pupils walking to school were knocked down and killed by an over-speeding vehicle as they were heading back for the second day of the new term. The accident occurred barely a week on the same area of Salgaa, now labeled a notorious black-spot, where a gruesome accident had claimed eleven. On the same day, eight more people died in two separate incidents; where in one, a 14-seater matatu rammed into a stationery lorry killing six passengers on the spot along Nairobi-Nanyuki highway.
According to the Kenya Red Cross website, 3,000 Kenyans lose their lives and thousands more are maimed annually as a result of road carnages. There have been concerted road safety campaign efforts especially during the festive season as this is when the worst crashes have been witnessed perennially. Statistics given by the Ministry of Roads shows that over 17,000 have died between 2007-2012. This is widely attributed to drink-driving, corruption and non-compliance with the common traffic rules and regulations. The Traffic Act was recently reviewed and amended to attract stiffer penalties in terms of jail terms and fines for traffic offenders.