The National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) is working with County Governments and other stakeholders to set up road safety response plans and committees to improve road safety.
NTSA Director General (DG) George Njau said they are starting with the ten counties traversed by the Mombasa – Malaba highway because of the high number of road accidents reported every year.
Speaking during a three-day road safety workshop in Naivasha, Njau said the ten counties will be assisted to adopt non-motorized means for road users, such as the construction of pedestrian walks and capacity building for motor-cyclists, popularly known as boda boda and road safety sensitisation among other road safety measures.
Njau noted that the initiative, part of the larger road safety campaigns known as ‘Usalama barabarani’, started five years ago, will be expanded to cover other counties.
“The counties will also be required to set up some funds for road safety programme which include road safety campaigns and awareness for road users. For instance, this financial year, Nairobi County has set aside Kes750million for this purpose,” he said.
Njau said one of what they are doing is to improve road signs and markings, known as black spot management, working with counties to provide parking bays to stem road accidents.
On vandalism of road signs, the DG said they are embarking on using alternative materials such as poly-carbonated plastics instead of metals which the vandals have targeted.
To tame counterfeits goods such as motor oils and motor-vehicle spare – parts, which has been known to contribute to road accidents, NTSA has also partnered with other partners such as the Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority to ensure only quality products for the transport sector are brought into the market.
Further, he announced that they have also embarked on re-testing of drivers as one of the measures to curb road carnage.
This is one of the directives given by Road and Infrastructure Cabinet Secretary (CS) Onesmus Kipchumba Murkomen in his address to the Parliament last month.
NTSA director in charge of the road safety programme Dr Dancun Kibogong` noted that the number of fatalities on our roads had reduced by 47 as of March 20 this year following a reduction in involving pedestrians, pillion passengers and motorcyclists.
“Our data shows a reduction in fatalities from 1021 to 974, a 4.6 percent drop compared to a similar period in 2022. Victims who sustained serious injuries in 2022 was 9,935, a decrease from the 10,050 who were critically injured in 2021,” he said.
