Transport PS determined to bring order on roads by phasing out reckless drivers

By MACHUA KOINANGE

KENYA: Transport Principal Secretary Nduva Muli is a man on a mission. For him, every headline about loss of lives on the country’s dangerous highways wracks his nerves. And he wants those heart-breaking headlines to diminish.

While there may be no quick fixes for Kenya’s cluttered and chaotic roads, Mr Muli believes road safety and discipline will be key pillars.

Too many have died on Kenya’s roads and the time for action is now, Muli believes.

“Since independence, road safety has been a disorganised process. I can assure you that no money has ever been put seriously into road safety. That is part of the problem,” he says.

“We have heard the outcry about Michuki rules and where they went; Michuki only came and implemented rules that were already there. The issue was that he had the determination and the push,” he adds.

So why did the rules not continue after John Michuki, the former minister for Transport (now deceased), left office?

Muli believes there was no institutional support to propagate the drive. Road carnage is itself a multiplicity of problems.

He says most driving schools are unregulated and any Tom, Dick or Harry can open one where learners are trained using unroadworthy vehicles.

“You will do five lessons, then they will take you to a police testing centre that has broken chairs and that one board that we all learnt on. And because you are so many, you will be told to drive a short distance,” he says.

Muli recalls that when he was learning to drive, he was taken to a hill in Pangani, Nairobi, and told to balance the clutch and accelerator.

“Nowadays you are told to drive a short distance and you are good to go,” he says.

Driving schools are a nightmare.

“Go to a driving school today –  they pile three students into a car, without safety belts, and are driven by an incompetent driver,” he says.

“When it comes to boda boda, you are trained in a back street. And if you look at our statistics, they show it is our pedestrians and boda boda riders who form the bulk of road accident victims. There is a big gap on the part of information about road safety,” he adds.

The Transport PS says Kenyan roads are breaking up more, the number of vehicles is increasing and, therefore, the risks are getting higher yet the mitigations are not there.

“Then we have failure in enforcement – total failure. The real issues are that the police force has no monitoring and evaluation system for traffic officers,” he says.

Muli says Kenya’s failed road system starts with a traffic officer who wakes up, puts on a white hat and goes out on the road. Besides doing a commendable job directing traffic during rush hour, by 2pm they are gone. Yet Muli says many accidents are happening at night. Those are the challenges.

“We have a lot of hope in the National Transportation and Safety Authority (NTSA). We want to build the institution called NTSA so that it can integrate all these challenges,” he says.

“We must be honest to get help to build the institutions. To be able to procure a supplier of speed guns who must have a standard, maintenance and calibration facility.”

The next step is to reintroduce alco-blow machines and expand speed guns.

Sources reveal that most of the alco-blow machines and speeds guns currently used by the police were donated by the private sector. There are 13 speed guns across the country serving a population of 40 million.

Road design

Muli poses: “Is road safety in the DNA of the engineers who built our roads?  We need to co-ordinate engineers and experts to synchronise issues like environment into road design. Does Nema work with road engineers?” The challenges are huge,” he reveals.

“The matatu solution lies in Saccos. Produce regulations that require matatus to self-regulate,” he argues.

But then, he says, that’s a tall order given the level of impunity in the matatu sector.

“We need to create a mechanism for self-regulation so that they can police each other. We will never have the capacity as a country to police everyone on the road.”

He says many matatu owners have lost control of their vehicles to errant drivers and rogue crews. Muli says the owner is only interested in getting the minimum amount he has been promised a day.

He says: “I don’t think there is any matatu owner who wakes up wanting his matatu to kill 20 people and be financially destroyed. But they have lost control of their business.”

He thinks it is a good thing that the private sector is running the transport industry. “I like the idea, but now we need to be innovative on how they regulate themselves.”

Muli would like to see the curriculum of driver training changed to include other issues like safety and fuel efficiency.

“Many truck drivers have little training. Driving schools should have simulators; instead, many truck drivers find out the hard way what happens when they speed around the roundabout at GPO.”

On driving licences, he says:” We have just tendered the smart driving licence through the ICT Board. We are going to get rid of the red booklets finally and have a system that gives you points for infractions and keep records of your road driving habits.”

The next phase after the new driving licences will affect vehicle registration plates.

Muli says currently, the system is open to abuse – motor vehicle owners commit traffic offences and go to a yard and get new registration plates. The ministry wants to create tamper-proof plates that shatter when anyone attempts to remove or change them.