Lobby group launches crackdown on speeding vehicles ahead of festive season

A lobby group is warning that motorists should brace themselves for a crackdown to rout out speeding vehicles during Christmas festive season.

Officials of Speed Governor and Road Safety Association said the exercise which begins next week is meant to avoid preventable road accidents.

The lobby's chairman Edward Gitonga says it will be carried out jointly with the National Transport and Safety (NTSA).

He also noted that the operation is meant to restore sanity on the roads.

At the same time, the lobby group issued a one-month ultimatum to the Kenya National Highways Authority (KeNHA) to redesign the structure of the expanded Eastern Bypass or face legal action.

Accompanied by Road Safety Association of Kenya Chairman David Kiarie and other officials, Gitonga argued that the road design puts road users at great risk since there are no provisions for safety.

"As a matter of urgency, there is a need to construct a service lane on each side of the upgraded road with regular stages for matatus and buses to drop and pick up passengers," he added.

The officials also took issue with a roundabout erected right in the middle of the four-lane highway, which they observed was against the standard practice for highways worldwide.

"We are demanding that within 30 days KeNHA should start the construction of service lanes and stages as well as the removal of the roundabout, failure to which we will seek court intervention," Gitonga stated.

The lobby group also expressed concern over numerous and abrupt U-turns in the road which leave motorists with little room for manoeuvre.

At the same time, they welcomed Roads and Transport Cabinet Secretary (CS) Kipchumba Murkomen's decision to introduce instant fines on the roads and equally lauded his plan to regulate the operation of boda boda operators.

Kiarie however warned traffic police against turning the crackdown into a cash cow by receiving bribes from errant motorists.

He also called for the removal of all boda bodas from the highways noting that their continued use of the roads was responsible for the deaths between riders and their passengers.

The road safety officials were speaking during an inspection tour of the highway a week after five people perished in Kamakis area after a vehicle rammed into a Tuk Tuk and crashed it into a matatu.