- At least 20 people, among them students, have perished on the roads in the past five days, triggering public outrage.
- Led by Majority leader Aaron Aaron Cheruiyot (Kericho), the senators blamed reckless driving for most of the accidents.
Image: SIKIKA ROAD SAFETY
Senators now want tough penalties imposed on reckless and rogue drivers and other roads to tame the rising number of road crashes.
Speaking in the wake of skyrocketing road carnages, the lawmakers pushed for tough traffic laws to sanity on the roads and save lives.
At least 20 people, among them students, have perished on the roads in the past five days, triggering public outrage.
Led by Majority leader Aaron Aaron Cheruiyot (Kericho), the senators blamed reckless driving for most of the accidents.
“The drivers who cause accidents should first be fined and eventually blacklisted from driving on the roads,” Cheruiyot said.
The Kericho senator lamented that more than 90 per cent of road accidents are caused by drivers who do not want to adhere to traffic laws.
“There is no shortcut- Until people begin to pay for their sins, they will not stop these bad habits of reckless driving,” he said.
“We can put the bumps, we can put all these infrastructures but unless and until we crack the whip on bad drivers, unfortunately, we shall continue to see the kind of results we are seeing which are really heartbreaking,” he added.
Majority Whip Boni Khalwale mulled over proposing comprehensive traffic law to reign in rogue and reckless road users.
“It is amazing the impunity exhibited by the ‘Boda Boda’ in Nairobi. They just ride on the opposite side of the road. I am doing a comprehensive law, a bill that will bring order in the Boda Boda sector. We must bring sanity in Nairobi just as Kigali in Rwanda,” Khalwale said.
The Kakamega senator held that lack of functionality in the Police traffic department, careless driving and in some cases poor road design are the major cause of road accidents across the country.
On her part, Senator Veronica Maina said that the number of fatalities is alarmingly high in Kenya and is second to Nigeria.
She added that the traffic department has not done much to bring sanity to the roads.
“The Traffic department has continued to receive tips, and bribes on the roads even when offenders are blatantly breaching the traffic rules,” she said.
“Most of the boda boda riders do not understand the road signage. They do not understand anything on our roads yet they have been given access to all the Highways. T
“In Dubai, it is difficult to see accidents happening on the roads because any form of an accident, any form of an injury, leads to withdrawal of licenses, they have very stiff penalties. In the UK, some of the drivers who cause accidents are given an option of a fine or two weeks of re-training for causing accidents. Drivers need to be more courteous.”