The National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) has drafted some crucial road safety plans that are aimed at ensuring the safety of children while using the roads.
For starters, motorists have been warned against flouting road safety signs planted along busy roads that pass near school zones to reduce road carnage.
NTSA Director General George Njau said some motorists had become notorious for speeding even in areas where road signs dictate the adherence to speed limits.
The NTSA official pledged to partner with Mombasa County Government and Bloomberg Philanthropies to implement a road safety awareness campaign for school-going children to avert road crashes.
“Under the UN road safety week, we have partnered with key stakeholders to promote a culture of road safety among Kenyans, and more importantly, to ensure a sober environment for our school-going children,” said Njau.
Part of the campaign is to ensure traffic marshals assist the school children cross the busy roads, as well as ensure they understand the road rules.
The road is considered a high-risk area for road users due to speeding vehicles.
Part of the initiative that marked the UN road safety week was to educate children about road safety and paint zebra crossings to encourage safe crossing areas for the children on the busy roads.
He spoke in Mombasa during a UN Global Road Safety Street Activation event at Jeffrey Academy convened by UN Habitat in collaboration with the Bloomberg Philanthropies Initiative for Global Road Safety (BIGRS) and NTSA.
Njau further noted that the traffic regulatory framework implementation is ongoing and will soon be tabled in Parliament for roll out.
“The regulatory framework is in place. We are doing the report writing before it goes to Parliament, and then roll it out to the public,” said Njau flanked by Mombasa County Executive Committee Member (CECM) for transport Daniel Manyala.
Manyala said Mombasa is in the process of developing a policy that will give direction to all learning institutions to adopt road safety guidelines for their children. He said the plan is to reduce road crashes.
“We are embarking on a rigorous road signage programme to ensure designated areas of crossing are visible and to zone areas with schools before coming up with a policy that will guide motorists using roads that are near schools,” said Manyala.
He said the implementation of the policy has cost implications, saying that the benefits override all else.
“We need to regulate the speed that these vehicles move and we are working with the law enforcement agencies, including the traffic police and Mombasa inspectorate marshals, to ensure it remains at 50 Km per hour,” said Manyala.
Kevin Ismael of BIGRS asked authorities to treat road crashes as a threat to public health owing to the economic burden that families of victims go through.
Ismael said BIGRS is working round the clock to reduce road crashes by sensitizing motorists and other road users on the importance of road safety.
At least 4,690 people lost their lives on Kenyan roads in 2022, according to the 2023 economic survey. The road crash victims were categorized as pedestrians, drivers, passengers, pillion passengers, pedal cyclists and motorcyclists.
By Hilton Mwabili
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