Thursday, was the requiem Mass for two sisters who were among schoolmates who died in a road crash along Mombasa Road. The parents of Felicia and Lisa describe them as “Angels Gone Too Soon”.
No one could have put it better for their lives have been snuffed out before they were even old enough to understand their purpose on Earth and God’s Grand Design. Hardly a day passes before a fatal road accident is reported.
Most occur at well-documented black spots. This is despite Kenya boasting of some of the best highways in East Africa. Going by the number of road deaths, the logical conclusion would be a correlation between the state of our roads and accidents. The better the road, the more the accidents. Strange!
Whereas most Kenyans shun political and economic impunity, the same Kenyan drivers, pedestrians, handcart pushers and cyclists appear to have perfected impunity by their mannerisms on the road.
Many routinely flout the Highway Code on speed regulation; carelessly overtake on dangerous corners, yellow lines, services lanes and zebra crossings. These are acts of a people with no driving etiquette, disregard rules and laws.
As road carnage rises, some law-abiding motorists, pedestrians, and law enforcers watch and spectate.
In the middle of this, Government, through road agencies such as Kenya National Highways Authority (KeNHA), Kenya Roads
Board, Kenya Urban Rural Authority, Kenya Rural Roads Authority continues to invest billions of shillings to ensure roads are in top-notch condition.
They have erected road signs, footbridges, guardrails, service lanes, pedestrians walkways ad nauseum, to ensure safety of motorised and non-motorised traffic.
shamed and jailed
But the same populace that cries for road safety provisions, have vandalised these road signs, to sell to scrap metal dealers.
Nobody has raised a finger.
Worse still, some pedestrians cross highways with eyes wide shut since they appear not to see footbridges staring them in the face or greedy motorists who overload their vehicles. Though Government agencies like KeNHA has been at the forefront of curbing overloading, purveyors of this vice must be named, shamed, and jailed.
Let the new Traffic Act be implemented to deal with the merchants of impunity on our roads.
Crazy Monday
Home & Away
Eve Woman
Generation Next
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