Highways turned into death traps as 10 die in two days
Kenyan highways are increasingly becoming potential death traps even as stakeholders raise concerns over safety measures taken as we head for the December festive season.
The ten died in two separate accidents in Machakos and Makueni counties over the weekend, in which, road safety experts have blamed lack of compliance by the owners of trucks that were involved in collision with public service vehicles (PSVs).
The first accident occurred last Friday evening at Ngoluni in Makueni County in which seven people, among them four students, perished after the matatu they were traveling in was hit by a truck ferrying building stones along the Machakos-Tawa-Mbumbuni road.
The four students were traveling back home after finishing their KCSE exams and reports indicate that one of the candidates died along with his mother and two young siblings who had gone to pick him from Makueni Boys High School.
In the second incident at the Machakos junction along the Nairobi – Mombasa highway barely two days later, three people were killed when a concrete mixer truck collided head-on with a 33-passenger matatu minibus early last Sunday morning.
The second truck was reportedly being driven on the wrong side of the dual carriageway and slammed into the matatu run by KAM Sacco which was ferrying passengers from Nairobi towards Machakos.
Road Safety Association of Kenya Chairman David Kiarie said both trucks involved in the two crashes did not have speed limit gadgets at the time of the accident, while pointing accusing fingers at National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) inspection centers.
Kiarie pointed out that the Faw truck involved in the Machakos junction accident was imported directly from China and did not go through the local dealer Trans Africa Motors, which he said was unprocedural.
He spoke to journalists at Kyumbi and Tawa police stations where the mangled wreckages of the matatus along with the trucks were towed to.
Regarding the Ngoluni accident, the official said the speeding truck swerved off the road and hit the matatu operated by Wamasaa Sacco that had stopped at a stage to pick passengers.
“It is very painful that we have lost students who were going home after completing their KCSE exams. The pain occasioned to their parents and the community is unimaginable,” remarked Kiarie.
He added that road safety officials have since established that the truck had not been inspected for two years and that its speed governor had just expired.
Kiarie said the road safety team will have the owners of the faulty vehicles charged with flouting traffic regulations, noting that so far about 5,000 people have lost their lives in road accidents this year and many more maimed.
Speed Governors and Road Safety Association Secretary General John Mutisya who was accompanying Kiarie in an inspection of the accident scenes was optimistic that the change of guard at NTSA would help curb the road carnage.
He asked the newly appointed acting NTSA Director General Angela Wanjiru to dismantle cartels, which allegedly previously working with her predecessor George Njao and only ended up compromising road safety measures.
“Over the last six years we had a person heading NTSA who was not bothered with road safety and was only interested in working with cartels and other crooked characters in money making deals. We know the new acting CEO means we’ll for the organization and we shall offer her the necessary support” stated Mutisya.
He charged that the installation and monitoring of speed governors has been taken over by brokers who are only interested in making money and not road safety.
