On a more serious note, we cannot
continue to have the same chain of command in our traffic police officers. Not
unless we want to continue seeing more blood on our roads. The questions that
are arising on the Narok-Nairobi road accident are the same questions that were
raised when we lost our pupils in the Kisii greasily road accident. However,
the slight variation is the fact that In the Narok case, the traffic police
officers who were supposed to be manning our roads were the first to point out
the mistakes of the ill-fated bus. One was that the city-city bus didn’t have a
TLC license and the second was that the bus was overloaded. How many road
blocks did the ill-fated bus pass before reaching Narok? Were these road blocks
manned by traffic police?
Banning night travels is what I
can describe as the most absurd move by the law makers or lack of words
ignorant move. Will the ban bring to an end the vices we see on our roads
today? Will the ban stop the bribery we see every day on our roads? Will it
stop public vehicles from overloading? The same applies to the mobile courts
that were recently launched on our roads. Quick fixes will not help this
country evade from the reality on the root cause of the rot in our roads.
What needs to be done and must be
done urgently is to overhaul the entire command in the traffic department then
review the Michukis rules. Speed governors and seat belts have become archives
in our public service vehicles. Simple way to prove this, when was the last
time you used a seat belt while moving from town Centre to your estate? After straightening the core office, the
country can then divert the attention to psv owners and companies. The drivers
of all the public service vehicles should be registered with the police
department, the vehicles they drive and the time they are to arrive at their
destination. Not to forget, the drivers should have qualifications from a
recognized driving school and be kept by the employer. Standard mode of payment
should also be worked out for all the vehicles and in that regard, the drivers
should be on the payroll. Finally the shift should be diverted to the wananchi
who use the vehicles. A heavy penalty
should be levied on whoever boards the vehicle that is full and neglect using
the seat belt.
Reagan Nyadimo
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