By CYRUS OMBATI
President Kibaki has appointed Eng Joseph Kamau Thuo to be the new chairman of the Transport Licensing Board (TLB).
Thuo replaces Mr Hassan Ole Kamwaro whose term ended last December. The board has been without a chairman for four months as top politicians argued on who would succeed Kamwaro and if he needed an extension.
The appointment of Mr Thuo who will serve for a year was made through a special gazette notice dated April 13.
TLB is under ministry of transport whose minister Amos Kimunya has been criticised by his fisheries colleague Amazon Kingi of favouring his community in appointments.
On Monday, Kamwaro said he was happy to have served at the board and blamed the upsurge in accidents in the country on incompetent drivers, bogus speed governors, mushrooming of fake documents and unregulated heavy commercial vehicles.
Kamwaro also faulted Government agencies (Ministry of Transport, Motor vehicle inspection unit, roads department and the traffic police) for not moving with speed to address the spiralling incidents of fatal road accidents on the Kenyan roads.
"I want to challenge Government agencies to move with speed and save Kenyans from the rising incidents of road carnage because this is a tragedy," he said.
Kamwaro pointed out that most of the road accidents are these days caused by lorries and trucks.
This is after they were exempted from regulation by the then Finance minister Kimunya.
"This category of vehicles was mysteriously removed from regulation and now most accidents are being caused by lorries," Kamwaro told The Standard.
Kamwaro observed that lack of speed governors or vehicles fitted with faulty governors is another contributing factor of the accidents.
Kamwaro revealed how efforts by TLB to procure satellite and tamper-proof speed governors were thwarted by a senior public officer from the ministry of Transport last year.
He also pointed out that more than 50 per cent of the drivers on the Kenyan roads are not qualified and only use corrupt means to obtain driving licenses without enrolling to any training institution.
