The Kenya National Highways Authority (KeNHA) plans to audit accident blackspots on six major road corridors with the possibility of redesigning them to fix faults that claim thousands of lives each year through crashes.
The State agency tasked with developing, rehabilitating, and maintaining highways said the study would be based on a black spot management system to identify road safety challenges and recommend measures to address them.
“The main objective of the study is to carry out a road safety assessment of selected key road corridors with the main aim of identifying high collision locations, establishing possible or contributory factors, (both engineering and non-engineering)” KeNHA said in a call for consultants to undertake the audit.
It adds that the study will recommend “mitigating measures that enhance road safety and packaging the identified measures into implementable lots,” — pointing to the planned redesign of the major highways.
The roads under scrutiny include the 220-kilometre-long Gilgil-Nyahururu-Rumuruti-Maralal highway, the 130-kilometre-long Eldoret-Iten-Kabarnet–Marigat stretch and the Makutano-Machakos-Masii-Kyua–Syongila highway, which is 109km long.
Others are the 79-kilometre-long Sori-Ndhiwa-Rangwe-Oyugis highway, the 65-km Kenol-Murang’a- Sagana–Kagio, and the Muhoroni - Fort Tenan–Londiani, which is 63km long.
The study will involve the collection of information about all crashes recorded on the major highways over the last five years, conducting collision investigation, and analysis to identify how the road designs contributed to the crashes.
KeNHA says the investigation will involve “identifying high collision locations, determining the frequency and severity of crashes, injuries, and fatalities categorised by road user type, and assessing the key contributing factors (including infrastructure and road environment) that influence risk for each user group.”
Road accidents have been on the rise in Kenya over the last two years, with many resulting in fatalities.
According to data from the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA), road accidents resulted in the deaths of 4,748 people last year, 400 more than the deaths recorded from road accidents in 2023.
NTSA has identified about 30 blackspots, where most of the fatal accidents were recorded, the majority of which are in Nairobi and the Rift Valley regions, and among them the six set for redesign.
Other than auditing the six highways for safety gaps, the consultant will be expected to train KeNHA staff on global road safety standards and publish a road safety document for public information.
