Crashes: Disband the NTSA or have it restructured

Never since the days of the dreaded Special Branch have Kenyans ever seen a government body that operates with impunity like the good for nothing National Safety and Transport Authority (NTSA). From common conversation to radio and TV talk shows and social media, it seems that the rank and file of Kenyans is agreed that it was time to disband NTSA.

When the rest of Kenyans are seated, elbows on thighs, palms on chins thinking of what went wrong as accidents decimate huge swathes of the population, the good folks at NTSA spend their waking days twiddling their thumbs in a clueless manner, waiting for the next horror accident to happen before engaging in a knee- jerk reaction.

BAN

The director-general is usually in his element when TV cameras are running banning night travel by PSVs, banning stalled vehicles on the road even as he scratches his head thinking of the next thing to ban.

Problem is, as NTSA honchos behave like a government on its own with the CEO issuing edicts like some medieval lordship, the number of Kenyans perishing on the roads continues rising.

According to information on its website, “The National Transport and Safety Authority was established through an Act of Parliament; Act Number 33 on October 26, 2012.

The objective of forming the Authority was to harmonise operations of the key road transport departments and help in effectively managing the road transport sub-sector and minimising loss of lives through road crashes.”

Kenyans would be hard-pressed to show you any successes of NTSA and many of them will no doubt support the plot being hatched by some Members of Parliament to have the body disbanded, at worst, or have it restructured, at best.

TRAFFIC POLICE

According to Gatundu South MP Moses Kuria, NTSA has strayed so far away from its mandate and is now handling work that should be done by the traffic police department.

“NTSA is supposed to be a standards and policy organ as far as transport safety in the country is concerned. Implementation and enforcement of policies emanating from

NTSA is solely the work of the police. So what, in the first place, drove NTSA on to our roads, complete with chase cars, breathalysers and arrogance?

They are chasing bribes on our roads. Francis Meja and his boys better go back to policy formulation and leave implementation of their policies to traffic police,” Kuria, who is also the vice-chair of Transport and Infrastructure committee in the House, thundered.

The outspoken MP might as well have been speaking on behalf of millions other Kenyans who feel that NTSA is taking them for a ride. Literally.

Take the recent ban on night travel. According to NTSA, it was something that was long in coming and had been discussed in detail. Which is a lot of hogwash considering that it came hot on the heels of the accident at Migaa in which some 36 Kenyans lost their lives.

NIGHT TRAVEL

However, a close look at the factors at play shows that NTSA and the traffic police are being economical with the truth. If it was planned in advance as NTSA would want Kenyans to believe, then the announcements would have long gone out.

This was not the first time the government was banning night travel by PSVs.

The government lifted a night travel ban in 2015 after a section of public service vehicle Saccos went to court accusing the Ministry of Transport of imposing the travel ban without due regard to NTSA Act since their licences allowing them to travel at night were valid and had never been revoked.

However, observers are of the view that banning night travel might not be the panacea for the troubled road transport sector. Veteran journalist Gordon Opiyo lays the blame right at the door of heavy duty trucks.

ROGUE DRIVERS

“NTSA should have deployed cameras and invested in technology. This would have made it easy to pick the rogue drivers, and allow the law abiding ones to remain on the road.

Instead, what does NTSA do? They allow the trucks that create 90 pc of the accidents on the road, and punish the rest of Kenyans. Why? It is said that the truck owners pay good bribes, and are very well organised,” Opiyo says.

On his part, another analyst Juma Kwayera believes the overlapping roles is to blame

We have three statutory bodies that do virtually the same thing. Such bodies with overlapping functions are a drain on national resources and obfuscate any form of accountability.”

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