Police blame accidents on funds

Police on Monday blamed their failure to curb road accidents on poor funding as statistics showed that 2,425 people had died this year alone, which is higher than the deaths recorded over the same period last year.

Until Monday 1,127 pedestrians, 613 passengers, 218 drivers, 120 cyclists, 240 motorcyclists and unspecified 107 had been killed on the roads, a trend that could see the numbers hit the predicted 3,000 fatalities by the end of the year.

The number of passengers killed rose at last evening after six people were killed in a car-truck crash on the Eldoret-Malaba Road. The car was ferrying nine people.

Police on Monday blamed their failure to curb road accidents on poor funding.

Traffic commandant Samuel Kimaru informed MPs on Monday that the deaths were still going up despite efforts and several safety campaigns launched to curb road accidents this year.

The figure is higher than the recorded 2,389 deaths over the same period last year. In 2011, the figure was much higher, hitting 2,516 in the first nine months of that year.

Mr Kimaru said the traffic department was inadequately equipped to fight the accidents. It did not have enough tools to track careless drivers.

“These figures keep going up. We are doing everything we can to ensure we prevent them. But we are poorly funded. Sometimes we do not have money to fuel traffic vehicles,” he told the Parliamentary Committee on Transport.

The committee summoned top officials from the Transport and Infrastructure docket including Cabinet Secretary Michael Kamau, Principal Secretary Nduva Muli, National Transport and Safety chairman Lee Kinyanjui and the commandant to brief them on what was being done to bring order in the roads and reduce accidents.

Mr Kamau said they were stabilising NTSA to make it more powerful and take the task of ensuring roads were safe.

“We already have a chairman. Now we are searching for a director general who will be at the helm. This authority plays a key role in bringing order to our roads but it is still young,” said Mr Kamau.

The MPs dissected the problems faced on the roads, saying corrupt traffic officers, bad road designs, speeding, overloading and disobedience of rules were still rampant and contributed mostly to the deaths.

In the last three years, pedestrians made the highest number of those killed. This year 1,127 have died, compared to last year’s 1,165 over the same period. A total of 1,195 lost their lives in 2011.

Mr Kimaru said that the department had only 2,500 traffic police officers against two million vehicles and 600,000 motorcycles on the roads.

Apart from lacking enough officers, inadequate equipment was also another challenge Mr Kimaru revealed.

“The whole of western region does not have a traffic vehicle while rift valley has two. It is really difficult for us to do our job,” he told the legislators who were shocked to learn that a whole region did not a vehicle to man traffic.

Committee chairman Maina Kamanda said Michuki Rules should be enforced fully to make roads safer.

“The rules did not die with late Michuki. We should ensure they are observed to the later,” he said.

Transport PS Muli said the ministry was working on tighter rules including empowering the Authority to enforce the latest regulations that empower Matatu Saccos.

Mr Kinyanjui, a former roads assistant minister, was appointed by President Uhuru Kenyatta last week to chair the authority created specifically to streamline the transport sector in sa bid to make it safer and more organised.