Police on alert for unroadworthy cars
The government has launched a countrywide traffic rules enforcement operation following the surge in road accidents in the past week.
It will target speeding, lane indiscipline, and assessment of general compliance with PSV licensing requirements and unroadworthy vehicles.
In a statement, police Spokesperson Bruno Shioso said the crackdown will be undertaken in conjunction with the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA).
“The Inspector-General of Police and the NTSA Director-General has directed a joint multi-agency crackdown to weed out all non-compliant vehicles and motorists who are violating the Traffic Act and related laws,” said Shioso.
Deaths spike
This follows an NTSA report revealing that a total of 1,968 people lost their lives in road accidents from January to May, with at least 30 people losing their lives in the past week.
The number of deaths is a 9.3 per cent increase from those recorded in a similar period last year.
Shioso called on road users to cooperate with the multi-agency teams as they undertake the operation on all major roads in the country.
“All motorists and other road users are requested to cooperate with the law enforcement agencies at the national and county levels towards achieving the objectives of this initiative,” Shioso said.
IG Hillary Mutyambai asked motorists who do not adhere to traffic rules to keep off the roads.
“High level of consciousness and personal responsibility towards oneself and others will go a long way in mitigating the rising incidents of road crashes,” said Mutyambai.
Meanwhile, NTSA revealed that only 400,000 out of 3.5 million vehicles in the country undergo roadworthiness inspection due to a shortfall of inspection centres.
NTSA Deputy Director Head of Road Safety Duncan Kibongong said the country has only 17 Vehicle Inspection Units.
“The units are not enough. Based on vehicles that we are supposed to inspect, we are doing badly. There is a need to come up with a framework to allow private sector partnership,” said Kibongong.
He spoke during the ongoing national stakeholder’s conference in Mombasa on improving road safety.
Kibongong stated that the authority is seeking to amend the Traffic Act to give the NTSA the power to hire private entities to conduct motor vehicle inspections on its behalf.
Many vehicles
“Many vehicles, especially private ones are not inspected,” said Kibongong.
The agency now wants the law amended to allow them to inspect every vehicle that is more than four years from the date of registration at its motion.
Currently, the law provides that every vehicle that is more than four years old from the date of manufacture shall be subjected to inspection.
NTSA is also planning to activate the Integrated Transport Management System (iTMS) by the end of the month to address increasing cases of road accidents.
Director-General George Njau said the new system will allow police officers to automatically gather information and recommend appropriate action for traffic offenders.
“At the end of June, we shall roll it out countrywide where police will be equipped with smart applications to help them automatically collect key road data for easy action,” he said.
