Revamped ‘Michuki traffic rules’ set for comeback

Commuters have been told to brace for a difficult time temporarily as traffic regulations commonly known as “Michuki rules” are set to be revamped and enforced in a few weeks.

Transport Licensing Board (TLB) chairman Hassan ole Kamwaro said at the weekend that he met Police Commissioner Matthew Iteere last week to come up with a strategy before introducing “water-tight mechanisms that will ensure road sanity is restored”.

The revamped road regulations would entail an automated machine that would detect those who are wrong in case of an accident as well as speed governors that were tampered with.

“I admit that our work will not be easy as the situation is now worse than the pre-Michuki rules days but I can assure you that we have the support of the government to clean up the rot in the sector,” he told journalists in Narok at a luncheon organised by Narok Education Task Force to celebrate his reappointment.

Mr Kamwaro said 80 per cent of vehicles in Nairobi alone did not have seat belts and 50 per cent of the drivers did not have valid driving licences, a situation which he said had resulted in a rise in road carnage.

The TLB boss said the clean-up would also target motorcycles as well as taxis which, he said, were to blame for most of the road accidents in the country.

“We shall set up centres in every province to train and vet motorcyclists who must also wear the right gear together with their passengers,” said Mr Kamwaro.

He said his revamped office would include officers seconded from the Kenya Police, Kenya Bureau of Standards, the National Environmental Management Authority as well as the Registry of Motor Vehicles.

Mr Kamwaro, who is credited with bringing about road sanity together with minister John Michuki in the early days of the Narc administration, resigned in 2007 to join politics. He was reappointed last December to the same job.