Interior Cabinet Secretary (CS) Kithure Kindiki has asserted that the number of road traffic accident fatalities in a year has surpassed the number of people who died from the COVID-19 pandemic between 2020 and 2022.
Speaking during the official opening of the Kisumu West Deputy County Commissioner’s Complex on Tuesday, Kindiki noted that the pandemic claimed 4,600 lives in two and a half years while road accidents have killed 4,000 people in a year.
He went on to assert that the road traffic accidents menace is worse than the Covid-19 pandemic, stressing that the country needs to enforce traffic laws.
“Between 2020 and 2022, we had Covid-19, a terrible epidemic where 4,600 people died in two and a half years, yet in one year alone, 4,000 people are dying because of road traffic accidents. This means the problem of road traffic accidents is worse off than serious epidemics than Covid-19,” Kindiki stated.
Additionally, the Interior CS said that plans to generate an ‘urgent’ program between the Traffic Department of the Kenya Police Service (KPS) and the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) were underway following a discussion with the Transport CS, Kipchumba Murkomen.
Kindiki added that the program is set to reduce deaths and injuries arising from road traffic accidents in the country.
“Therefore, I have had a discussion this morning with my counterpart, the Transport CS, to come up with a program between the KPS and the NTSA to reign in the problem of road traffic accidents,” the CS said.
He condemned law enforcement officers taking bribes from citizens, stating that they hugely contribute to road accidents increase.
“If you are a law enforcement officer and instead of booking someone who has broken traffic laws, you ask for a bribe, and make the offence disappear. You are also part of this criminal organization that is hurting our people,” he said.
He further called on citizens to respect police officers, noting that they help to ensure security in the country and vice versa.
The Interior CS’s remarks come in the wake of a road accident where 11 Kenyatta University students died and 21 others were seriously injured on Monday evening when their college bus collided with a truck in the Maungu area near Voi on the Nairobi-Mombasa highway.
