Players want say in roads authority

By Patrick Beja

KENYA: Truck owners have urged the newly established National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) to involve stakeholders and embrace training of drivers.

Under the Mombasa-based Kenya Transport Association (KTA), the truck owners told NTSA on Thursday to welcome the participation of key stakeholders in its programmes and support training to raise safety standards on roads.

KTA chief executive officer Ms Jane Njeru said the association, whose members own over 50,000 trucks, welcomed the authority but want to be part of its committees.

“Without fully involving stakeholders and supporting training programmes for drivers, the authority cannot succeed,” she said in Mombasa on Thursday.

Safety

Ms Njeru said the nation must think about safety and support the majority of road users.

She said there should be flow of information and enhanced awareness on safety in the transport industry.

“Majority of road users are not properly trained and we should seriously think about it,” she noted.

Trucks currently move more than 95 per cent of cargo passing through the port of Mombasa following the decline in capacity of rail transport in Kenya and East Africa.

The port handled about 20 million metric tonnes of cargo last year. On Wednesday, Transport minister Amos Kimunya launched NTSA in Nairobi to improve safety of road, water, rail and air transport.

Training

Mr Joseph Kamau Thuo is the national chairman and Mr Issac Kamau is its acting director general. Meanwhile, KTA has rolled out the eagerly awaited training of truck drivers on defensive driving and time management, among other subjects.

Njeru said the first lot was trained at the Mombasa-based institution in December last year while the second group completed the course in January this year.

“We have rolled out the training programmes and we plan to formally launch the training centre in May,” Njeru said.  Trucks have been blamed for many of road accidents necessitating retraining of drivers.