930 arrested as new traffic law takes effect

Police had by Saturday evening arrested about 930 drivers and motorbike riders on roads across the country as new traffic rules came into force.

Traffic Commandant Benson Kibui said the suspects were arrested for obstruction, overlapping, picking up passengers outside the designated areas, riding motorbikes without helmets, driving without driving licences, riding without reflective jackets and driving vehicles without fire extinguishers and life saver reflectors.

Earlier in the day, Nairobi Traffic Police Chief Patrick Lumumba told Sunday Nation that his officers arrested 107 offenders.

“The operation to ensure that motorists and motorbike riders abide by the new laws continues tonight,” Mr Lumumba said.

In Nyeri, Central Province traffic boss Job Magutu said that over 20 drivers were netted in the operation.

Mr Magutu said that the operation was necessary to rid roads of motorists flouting traffic laws, saying that the enhanced penalties for offenders are meant to check the number of deaths on Kenyan roads.

“Our aim is not to punish the PSVs, but rather it is to ensure that they obey traffic laws. Today we have seen that even private vehicles have committed serious offences, and we have arrested a number who were driving without licences,” said Mr Magutu.

Confusion marked the first day of the implementation of the amended Traffic Act, which has been hailed as a panacea to the road carnage in the country.

Traffic police officers were still manning the roads despite the Act abolishing the department.

It was also business as usual on the roads as motorists continued to flout the rules. Traffic Police Commandant Benson Kibui maintained that the Act had not abolished the department but simply empowered other officers to enforce the law.

But the Act expressly indicates that the traffic police department is scrapped and removes the position of traffic commandant and the deputy.

“For avoidance of doubt, the administrative unit of the Kenya Police Service known as the Traffic Department is hereby abolished,” reads the Act in part.

But when challenged with specific provisions, Mr Kibui said the National Police Service Commission (NPSC) would give directions on how to implement the law.

The process

“The process of recruiting the Inspector General is still ongoing. Once the IG is appointed, the commission will be complete and it will issue guidelines on how to move forward,” Mr Kibui said.

NPSC chairman Johnstone Kavuludi was also not clear on the implementation of the Act, saying the police commissioner was best placed to talk about it.

The Act, sponsored in Parliament by Gem MP Jakoyo Midiwo, was passed in June this year by seven MPs in 40 minutes. The law empowers any police officer unit to handle traffic issues. Mr Kavuludi said his commission supports the scrapping of the department, terming it elitist.

“Its existence has created an elite department within the service where every officer was scrambling to go to manage traffic,” Mr Kavuludi said.

The new development might force other officers to go back to the police training college for specialised training on traffic management.

Usually, police attached to various departments within the service are trained for three-and-half months at Kiganjo.

Mr Kavuludi and Mr Kibui, however, maintained this is not necessary. Mr Kibui said all police officers are trained in traffic management.

“Managing traffic is not rocket science,” he said.

But some motorists have termed the scrapping of the department ill-advised.

Sunday Nation motoring columnist Gavin Bennett said all police officers are empowered to enforce all rules and the traffic department merely exists to rationalise personnel resources and work assignments, not special powers.

“There are grave dangers in encouraging non-specialist policemen to become widely and actively involved in judgements they may not be competent to make,” Mr Bennett said. “We do have some brilliant traffic officers, but even in this specially focused department, there are many who are blatantly under-qualified.”

Defending the provision, Mr Midiwo said whenever accidents occur regular police officers must wait for their traffic colleagues to act.

“Police should be trained to handle all crimes. It is for us to tell the police what to do, and not for them to tell us what they want to do,” he said.

There has been a public outcry over the rot in the traffic police department with several surveys ranking it as the most corrupt unit of the police.

At one point, Police Commissioner Mathew Iteere, angered by the corruption allegations, reportedly threatened to move all the traffic police officers to the anti-stock theft unit and replace them with GSU officers.

The new Act proposes stiff penalties for traffic offences. There are fines of up to half a million shillings while jail sentences include 10 years to life behind bars.

In the past week, matatu operators have gone on strike in several parts of the country protesting the implementation of the new rules.

The impromptu strike caught commuters and the government flatfooted, after it brought operations in several towns to a standstill on Thursday and Friday.

According to the 2008 economic survey, the matatu sector generates about half a billion shillings daily, meaning a huge amount was lost during the two-day strike.

Experts have constantly warned the government against leaving the public transport sector to private investors, saying it has an element of national security.

The managing director of Kenya Bus Services Management Ltd, Mr Edwins Mukabanah, said it was wrong to leave public transport in the hands of private citizens.