NTSA should enforce traffic rules in Kenya

Every so often, the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) introduces regulations whose aim, we are told, is to curb road menace.

Taking stock now, can we say these regulations have been effective? Granted, there is more order today in the transport sector than in the period before 2012, when NTSA was formed by an act of parliament and given the mandate to make our roads safe.

But we must also agree that order by itself has had very little impact in safeguarding lives that are needlessly lost through road accidents.

A past report by the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) showed that 1,983 Kenyans died in road accidents between January and September 2015. Of the dead, 847 were pedestrians while 457 were passengers.

The latest road death statistics from NTSA show 1,500 have died on our roads in the last seven months alone. Given the rate at which accidents are occurring, there is every possibility the figure could almost double by December 2016, which is enough cause for worry.

NTSA must move from merely creating laws to enforcing those laws to save the lives of Kenyans. It must not allow itself to fall in the lethargic state the traffic police department has allowed itself to fall.