Reduce road carnage by installing more cameras

Traffic police officer Samuel Koech tests the Trucam speed camera during the equipment handover ceremony by NTSA to the National Police Service in Nairobi. [File. Standard] Kenya has one of the worst road deaths in Africa. At number six, we are doing badly and losing a lot of people unnecessarily. It is a statistic we must do something about. The usual messages about driving carefully and heeding road etiquette doesn't work, at least not in Kenya. We are such a hardened lot that the only way we can adhere to the law is through some form of punishment. When driving on our highways, you see many signs advising drivers to keep to the left lane unless overtaking, not to overload lest they receive a hefty fine, wear safety belts etc. Simple and sensible advice that would make life easy for everybody but do we observe these traffic rules? No. If for instance you overtake the fellow in a massive truck moving at a snail's pace on the inside lane, the trucker gets offended when you use universally acknowledged sign language to ask him to move to the proper lane. The point I am driving at is that traffic rules in Kenya are more honoured in breach than observance, which is really unfortunate. That's why speed cameras should be rolled out across the country and linked to the car registry for ease of following up on fines in case of violation. In Rwanda, speed cameras are linked to the details of the owner. If you are caught speeding, you will receive a message on your phone with details of the offence and the fine to be paid within a certain time, failure to which the vehicle can be impounded and the owner prosecuted. This is the kind of thing we need here. The beauty of this system is it will lead to observance of traffic rules, raise taxes for the broke government and perhaps ensure traffic policemen go back to the basics and do their work instead of their current work of collecting bribes. Such cameras would be a game changer, unless of course the entire operation is sabotaged by those with the most to lose: the traffic policemen who thrive in the current chaos. Traffic policemen in other countries do their work; they manage traffic operations and ensure smooth flow of traffic. In Kenya, their work is to waylay motorists at certain places, finding a traffic violation even when none exists and of course getting their palms greased. I have always been of the opinion that traffic policemen across the country should have a kind of ledger where they enter details of the day's work: how many vehicles have been stopped? Why? Are they in a roadworthy situation? If they have violated certain road traffic rules, what is the recourse? We have installed a couple of cameras in and around Nairobi; I hope they are put to good use and not just some investment that people came up with to make a quick buck. We have the security cameras in and around Nairobi that were installed at an enormous cost. Are they still operational? In my opinion, all they do is blind motorists at night with the strong flash. Remember the bus lane that was to be introduced on Thika Superhighway? The entire length of road now boasts of semi-finished structures that should have been bus shelters but now lie in ruins. There was a contractor who is said to have been paid millions of shillings to draw a pink line in the middle of the highway to mark the bus lane. Of course, years later, the line has since faded; that was good money down the drain. Don't we have people who can follow up and ensure such contracts are seen to the very end? Can people be held accountable especially if they have been paid using public resources? That is the only way we can ensure that this country moves ahead. -The writer is a communications consultant

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