Kenya has some of the most stringent and punitive traffic laws in the world.
There were numerous road accidents which injured, maimed and killed thousands towards the end of last year.
Something needs to be done to tame road carnage. I wonder where the problem stems from, considering that Kenya has adequate traffic laws after amendments about five years ago.
In fact, Kenya has some of the most stringent and punitive traffic laws in the world.
For example, the penalty for causing death by careless driving is life imprisonment.
I did some research on other jurisdictions and found that not many have as stringent laws as Kenya’s.
A number of traffic offences were created or re-defined by the legal reforms including obstruction, careless driving, causing death by dangerous driving, and speeding.
The penalties for these offences are quite punitive, with causing death by dangerous driving being handled in the same manner as a capital offence.
Despite these new traffic laws, little has been done in actual reforms. In my view, the road safety legal environment is a good case of sound law but poor implementation and institutional capacity.
The laws are adequate but the problem lies in the lack of enforcement and institutional capacity.
Law enforcers have been blamed for the rising number of road accidents. Media reports indicate that runaway corruption, especially bribe-taking police officers, worsening the menace.
As a result, money changes hands and traffic offenders get away with a slap on the wrist. There is also conflict of interest where some law enforcers are in the same public transport business. Obviously, the penalties contained in the laws can not be implemented in the event of a traffic offence where conflict of interest exists.
Whereas the law provides stringent penalties, I have not heard of any severe sentence being meted out to gross traffic offenders — especially those who cause deaths through careless driving.
Bold steps should be taken as a deterrent to repeat offenders. I advocate for the imposition of the maximum sentence where the offender has been grossly careless, negligent, and unremorseful.
It is unfortunate that some repeat offenders who remain unremorseful for deaths caused by careless driving get away Scot-free because of bribing their way out of courts and a jail term. The purpose of having strict penalties is for them to act as deterrents to would be offenders.
Otherwise strict penalties that exist merely on paper do not achieve the purpose for which they were written.
The National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) is the statutory body charged with road safety in Kenya. Its role is to make policies and implement them.
The NTSA Act gives the body authority to form county committees to discharge some safety duties.
The committees should work in conjunction with NTSA to improve road safety in counties where road carnage has been on the rise.
Traffic laws are adequate. However, institutions charged with overseeing road safety seem to be part of the problem.
Institutional reforms need to be undertaken to weed out incompetency and corruption.
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