Peeling tarmac off the roads best way to curb accidents

An accident involving a bus and a trailer at Bethel Junction near Cheptiret on the Eldoret-Nakuru highway on the night of November 09, 2013. Three passengers who were traveling in the bus died on the spot while other passengers were injured and taken to the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret Town. The bus was heading towards Eldoret Town while the trailer was heading towards Nakuru during the 9:20pm incident. PHOTO: JARED NYATAYA/NATION

What you need to know:

  • It is obvious that all fatal accidents are caused by people who were blind with drink.
  • By 2004, there were 510 fatal accidents per 100,000 vehicles in Kenya – well above second-ranked South Africa, with 260 fatalities, and the United Kingdom, with 20.

Only nine months after the General Election, Kenyans are finally coming to terms with the reality that the old coalition government of Mwai Kibaki and Raila Odinga is dead.

Buried with it are the ceaseless contestations over consultations. Mr Odinga — that political colossus that hung like a cloud over Kenya — no longer has any say over anything that happens in people’s lives.

Banished is the riddling that characterised discourse at political rallies. And gone, too, is the spirit of meaningless protest.

Kenya is becoming progressive and acquiescent, with citizens quickly abandoning the culture of freeloading on the government by paying their way through life.

They know that every financial transaction — from sending money on their mobile phone to making a withdrawal from the automated teller machines nets something small — a mere 10 per cent of the transaction fees — for the government.

Their government does not run on air.

Everyone is overjoyed at having to pay 6 per cent of their monthly income as contribution to the National Social Security Fund.

That is why Kenyans dutifully queue to pay value added tax on food items, books and newspapers – especially knowing that they have so many other uses even before the reading begins.

If journalists are required by law to pay a measly Sh500,000 in fines for breaching their code of ethics, they know that it is for their own good.

After all, it is not as if they are producing anything that requires you to be slapped by a book. Bold initiatives, such as not shying away from switching off analogue television sets, will put the country in the right frame to rapidly develop.

Take the issue of road accidents, for example. Kenya is the leading site of road accidents in the world.

By 2004, there were 510 fatal accidents per 100,000 vehicles in Kenya – well above second-ranked South Africa, with 260 fatalities, and the United Kingdom, with 20.

Road accidents have been trying to edge malaria and HIV/Aids out of pole position as the biggest killers in Kenya.

The installation of safety belts, speed governors and first aid kits in public service vehicles has not reduced the number of accidents. Passenger capacity for matatu was reduced to 13; speed limit set at 80 kilometres per hour, and vetting of drivers and conductors.

Still, drivers continue to be the biggest causes of 135,277 accidents reported between 2000 and 2010.

It is obvious that all fatal accidents are caused by people who were blind with drink.

They must all take the breathalyser test – especially in the urban centres where they kill thousands.

Darkness, too, has been identified as a cause of accidents. That is why Kenyans are encouraged to only travel short distances that can be covered in the daytime.

This means that finding jobs far from home, and thus necessitating night travel, should be taxed.

Should these measures not suffice, the practical government in office must look at the statistics again.

The Kenya Roads Board reckons that there are 160,886 km of public roads with 11,197 km, or 7 per cent, having tarmac.

Since the majority of the reported road accidents occur in the motorable sections, with 80 documented black spots on the Nairobi-Thika road, Nairobi-Mombasa road, and the Nairobi- Nakuru- Eldoret road, reducing accidents should be as easy as pie.

As a new intervention, the government should peel the tarmac off all the roads, and the speed maniacs will freeze in their tracks – unable to stay drunk or speed on rutted tracks.