OVERLOADING is a culture that should stop

Kenyan matatus and other forms of transport have been the subject of accidents – careless driving, carrying excess passengers being the main cause. For the sake of an extra thirty shillings, touts have turned to openly overloading matatus and easily pass the hands of police officers to fulfill their unhealthy desires for more money.

Approximately 3,000 deaths occur from road crashes in Kenya annually, a portion attributed to overloading.

According to the National Transport Safety Authority, in a report released in 2015, the increase in population is among the factors that result to increased reports of car crashes.

“The bad road behavior and attitude of the Kenyan motorists such as drunk driving, speeding, jay walking, disregard of the laws, impunity/careless and dangerous driving, all these are factors that increase deaths,” read part of the report.

This risk can however be done away with.

The National Transport and Safety Authority gives a provision to allow citizens to be in charge of their own safety.

In one of their campaigns, the NTSA allows the public to be on the fore front of raising alarm should a bus driver, ship captain be in opposition to the requirements of the law.