School children travelling in death traps

Ours is a nation that believes in management by crises.

The accident involving a school bus at Hell’s Gate is but a warning to the nation and parents whose children have to commute to school daily.

My condolences to parents who lost their children.

In an average school bus, children are piled neatly like sardines without regard to traffic rules. Belting up is unheard of.

If the children involved in the Hell’s Gate accident had been wearing safety belts, there is a high chance they would have survived the incident.

We should not blame the driver or teachers because it is common knowledge that capacity-carrying is an alien term to schools.

Traffic officers have to crack down on these vehicles before more of our children die in accidents.

As the Transport Ministry continues in its eternal slumber, it’s time we as parents fought for the rights of our children by demanding safer transport systems and policies.

Otherwise we will keep on praying the next dead child will not be ours. Can Education Minister Sam Ongeri respond with a circular?

{Kollongei Kipruto, via e-mail}

Deteriorating standards in our public schools have given rise to the proliferation of private enterprises to fill the gap for parents wishing to give their children premium education.

However, the abdication of supervisory roles by the Education ministry and relevant authorities has led to all manner of ill-trained business people exploiting the vacuum.

Education is now a business steeped in profiteering, corruption and lack of adherence to policies and standards unparalleled anywhere in the region.

Parents’ willingness to pay and not question has led to many tragedies from drug abuse and promiscuity to psychological and emotional trauma. We are breeding a generation of miscreants and sociopaths.

How many times do children arrive home in the evening traumatised after a harrowing school bus ride in an overloaded and dilapidated vehicle driven by an ex-matatu driver at breakneck speed?

For how long will we wring our hands as we watch our children transported in death traps? It appears we are all co-conspirators in this tragic farce.

{P P Kirundi, via e-mail}

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