A case for instant fines in traffic offences

A matatu on the Kisii-Kilgoris road. PHOTO | FILE | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • Hours lost: A lot of time is wasted by offenders and police who have to appear in court.

During a recent surprise visit to the Kibera Law Courts in Nairobi, Chief Justice Willy Mutunga unearthed a massive corruption scam in the Traffic Court whereby unscrupulous officials mint millions of shillings from alleged offenders.

The impromptu investigation revealed that in cases involving minor traffic offences, there were numerous instances of bribery, parallel receipting for fines, case backlogs and delays in the court process.

This has resulted in the government constantly losing revenue that rightfully belongs to it.

In order to put this state of affairs into perspective, an analysis of the Traffic Act has to be done. The law creates various traffic offences and applicable penalties.

However, it does not provide for fixed or statutory fines. Needless to say, it provides a maximum amount and thus the applicable fine is left to the particular magistrate’s discretion.

As a result of this discretion,  the amount of fines or penalties payable varies from one offence to the next, leading to uncertainty and development of perceptions among the public of unfairness and “elasticity of justice.”

WASTED TIME

Further, due to the high frequency of minor traffic offences, courts expend a lot of time and resources prosecuting minor offences.

Similarly, a lot of time is also wasted by offenders and the police who have to appear before court. It is not uncommon for an offender to spend an entire morning at the law courts only to be slapped with a fine of just Sh500 for a minor offence.

The end result is wastage of valuable man hours for all parties involved which could be better deployed in more productive national development endeavours.

The other major inconvenience to offenders is the public stigma and public embarrassment attached to a court appearance for a minor offence.

This and a litany of other inconveniences is a major motivation for the quest for quick-fix solutions such as issuing bribes to avoid an arrest and the subsequent court process.

The collection and administration of fines is another area which raises concerns. The process is entirely manual which leads to revenue leakage through the existence of parallel receipting among others.

The National Transport and Safety Authority has stridently and consistently called for amendments to the Traffic Act to provide for instant fines, a view that is shared by the Judiciary and National Police.

However, we are cognisant of the fact that such amendments shall take a considerable amount of time as they have to go through a potentially long-drawn legislative process.

This notwithstanding, the amendment of the Traffic Act to incorporate instant fines is a long-term solution to the problem which the authority is actively pursuing.

As an interim measure the National Transport and Safety Authority is in the process of amending Section 117 of the Traffic Act which empowers the Cabinet Secretary to prepare a schedule of minor traffic offences and prescribe a statutory penalty.

Simply put, this means that the Cabinet Secretary shall list the common minor offences in a schedule and the corresponding fixed fine provided that such fine does not exceed what the Traffic Act prescribes as the maximum amount.

The writer is Director-General, National Transport Safety Authority