By JOE KIARIE

KENYA: Transport Cabinet Secretary Michael Kamau has in recent days been in a bullish mood, defending ongoing government efforts to curb road carnage.

Alongside officials from the Traffic department, he insists the government will stop at nothing to save lives on Kenyan roads, and eventually remove the country from the notorious list of nations with the highest road accident rates in the world. But will he be able to match and surpass what the late John Michuki effortlessly did in 2004?

“We want to be like Sweden where a road accident is like a terror attack,” Mr Kamau confidently states. “We must not go beyond 3,000 deaths in 2014”.

Statistics on road accidents show that Kamau will have his work cut out if he is to match Sweden’s standards.

While Kenya has consistently recorded over 3,000 deaths annually, the Scandinavian country, with five million cars on the road, recorded just 285 deaths in 2012. Only 195 fatalities had occurred by October last year.

While Sweden also enjoys near perfect observation and enforcement of road rules, Kenya borders on the extreme opposite, with virtually every traffic rule being broken in broad daylight with a worrying degree of impunity.

Kamau, however, has a secret weapon: the Legal Notice No. 219 of the National Transport Safety Authority Act.

The legislation, which was gazetted on December 17, last year, outlines a raft of measures aimed at transforming the country’s public transport sector, which accounts for majority of road accidents. Notably, though, most of the provisions in the new law are a replica of pre-existing rules and regulations that Michuki effectively, albeit temporarily, used to tame the insanity in the sector back in 2004.

Under the new laws, Kamau seeks to go one step better than Michuki and introduce measures to specifically check aspects that are seen as a major cause of accidents.

This includes the regulation of night travel, limiting the working hours of PSV drivers to avert fatigue, introduction of tamper-proof speed governors, adoption of a cashless fare system and the banning of cargo carriers on the roofs of long distance vehicles.

Matatu owners have until the end of next month to fit the new speed governors on their vehicles and a July 1 deadline to adopt a cashless fare system. The latter is seen as vital in curbing corruption. Yet, despite the government’s tough stance on adherence to the rules, critical questions abound regarding their enforcement of the new rules. Why are law enforcers currently concentrating on regulating night travel while motorists break other rules with impunity? Why is the government finding it hard to simultaneously and firmly enforce all the rules the way Michuki did a decade ago?

Lee Kinyanjui, the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) chairman, says it is a matter of time before the current laws take full effect. “Michuki assumed office in early 2003 and it was not until 2004 that we saw the results. We are barely one year in office and we already have new rules enacted and enforcement is already underway,” he says, adding: “This legislation was only gazetted last month so just give us time. We are very serious on enforcing these rules but we want to do it in a systematic and sustainable manner.”

Speeding drivers

Kinyanjui, who is Kamau’s lieutenant in the ongoing strategy, says there are diverse reasons as to why the rules cannot be enforced simultaneously this time round, hence the need to do it progressively.

 Asked what the government is doing to curb runway corruption among traffic police officers, Kinyanjui says the ongoing vetting of senior police officers, where corruption has been accorded special attention, will be vital in helping fight the vice.

In Kenya, it is vulnerable pedestrians who account for the highest percentage of road accident casualties. Ironically, little has been done to protect them, with millions of Kenyans still left at the mercy of speeding drivers while crossing busy highways. Mr Kinyanjui is at pains to explain this oversight. Along Mombasa Road for instance, he says, two footbridges are being constructed at Bellevue and General Motors crossings. But what of crossings such as City Cabanas, where road expansion has only added to the nightmare of thousands of pedestrians, with not even a zebra crossing or speed bumps to save lives.

“There are plans to build a footbridge and have a zebra crossing at the City Cabanas interchange,” he says. Traffic Commandant Samuel Kimaru admits there has been overconcentration on enforcing the night travel ban in the past fortnight. “All we want for now is to stop the grisly accidents we have been witnessing during the night,” he says, adding: “But we are equally arresting and taking to court anyone found breaking any other rule”.

The commandant says there will be no relenting on enforcing the night travel regulations despite a public outcry to do so.

“We understand it hurts the economy. But this is exactly what Kenyans expected when they cried to us to do something about road accidents. Let them not complain when we enforce laws,” he states.

He says there has been almost 100 per cent compliance with the rule this week, with very few PSVs seized for moving at night.

“If you don’t have a license, don’t even try. We will take you to court and even recommend suspension of your TLB permit,” warns Mr Kimaru.

But the government will have to brace for stiff resistance from matatu operators, who are opposing not just the enforcement, but also the manner in which the rules were enacted. Despite Kamau insisting that the new legislation was enacted following extensive deliberations with stakeholders last year, the operators claim most of the critical issues were sneaked in. “Some issues were left open for consultation, only to later appear in the Kenya gazette,” says a Matatu Owners Association official. “We had also, for instance, agreed on long distance as any journey exceeding 150km, only for the gazetted law to reduce the same to 60km,” he says. The other point of contention was the fitting of new speed governors. The matatu owners argue that their vehicles have already been fitted with the gadgets, purchased at an average of Sh40,000 each.

“Who will cater for the extra cost when the government is not even willing to offer a subsidy on them?” poses the official.

The owners term the directive to have two drivers per vehicle daily and hiring on permanent contracts impossible and vow to oppose it to the bitter end.

“We will stay put and are certain the government will review the rules when it feels the ripple effect to the economy,” he says. Some bus companies have already hiked fares by up to Sh800. But Kamau is unapologetic, saying no economic loss can be equated to deaths or maiming of individuals in accidents.

“If Sh600 is what it takes to stay alive, so be it. We have neighbouring countries that have banned night travel altogether,” he states.