- Murkomen then directed the NTSA and traffic police to carry out a crackdown to ensure that the vehicles were no longer on Kenyan roads.
- The CS said vehicles such as Noah and Voxy, Probox, and Toyota Sienta were illegally ferrying Kenyans.
Image: FILE
The Matatu Owners Association now wants Transport CS Kipchumba Murkomen to stamp his authority and kick out private vehicles operating illegally as public service vehicles.
MOA President Albert Karakacha on Wednesday heaped the blame on the police for allowing the vehicles to operate and flout traffic rules at will.
“There is negligence on our roads. We blame the police for allowing these vehicles to operate,” Karakacha told the Star on the phone.
Our efforts to reach Traffic Commandant Mary Omari did not succeed, as she neither picked calls nor responded to our text message.
On November 30, Transport CS Kipchumba Murkomen ordered, with immediate effect, a nationwide crackdown on illegal public transport vehicles (PSV).
“I want to direct NTSA starting tomorrow morning (December 1) to make sure a countrywide crackdown is done to weed out any private vehicles that are operating as PSVs,” Murkomen said.
The CS spoke during the celebrations of the 20th anniversary of the Matatu Owners Association (MOA) National Delegates Conference at Kenyatta International Convention Centre.
Murkomen then directed the NTSA and traffic police to carry out a crackdown to ensure the vehicles were no longer on Kenyan roads.
The CS said vehicles such as Noah and Voxy, Probox, and Toyota Sienta were illegally ferrying Kenyans.
Murkomen said the vehicles do not pay any licensing fees, and they operate at a higher speed as they are not regulated.
Despite the tough talk by the CS, a spot check by the Star showed that the culprits are still in operation.
They are common in some of the stages, such as Afya Center and Taveta Road, among others.
Karakacha said the illegal PSVs are unnecessarily eating into their profits, adding to the woes facing the sector following the hike in the cost of petroleum products.
On the worrying road accident trends, Karakacha asked the state to dual the Northern Corridor stretching from Mombasa to Malaba, saying the move would reduce accidents.
Police statistics show more than 40 people have died in separate accidents in the country this year.
On Tuesday, at least 15 people died in a road accident in the Twin Bridge area along the Nakuru-Eldoret highway.
The victims included eight adults and seven children.
The accident involved a Classic Kings of Congo bus and a North Ways 14-seater matatu.
Police said 38 others escaped unhurt.
Karakacha said the dualling of Thika and Nyeri had helped reduce road accidents.
He said plans are in place for the association to partner with the state and establish training schools for drivers across the country in the latest bid to curb road accidents.
“We are in the process of meeting with a donor to make the issue of training schools work.”
Karakacha said in a past interview with the Star that the association has identified places where schools can be started.
He said Nairobi, Mombasa, Nakuru, Kisumu, Eldoret, and Nyeri are some of the counties identified so far.
“If we can establish training schools in those counties, we will bring down the road carnage by up to 60 per cent because we believe that once we train the drivers, the issue of accidents will go down completely,” Karakacha said in an interview with the Star.
The World Health Organization says between 5,000 and 15,000 lives are lost on the roads every year.
Kenyan authorities, however, peg the figure at about 3,000.
According to the state, the annual economic cost of road crashes is about three to five per cent of GDP, or Sh350 billion.
The 2023 Kenya Demographic Health Survey shows that at least 4,690 people lost their lives on Kenyan roads in 2022.
The year recorded 21,757 road accident casualties, representing a 5.5 per cent increase from the 20,625 deaths reported in 2021.
The number of people who lost their lives in road crashes in 2021 was 4,579.
The number of victims who sustained serious injuries in 2022 was 9,935, a decrease from the 10,050 who were critically injured in 2021.
The number of those who sustained slight injuries in 2022 rose by 1,136 to 7,132 from 5,996 reported in 2021.