Yes, remove all illegal bumps from our roads

A careless driver is likely to cause an accident as happened in Karai, Nakuru County, on the night of December 10, 2016.

On that fateful day, 40 lives were lost in an inferno started by inflammable material aboard a lorry whose driver lost control after hitting an unmarked bump.

But while the Karai accident happened because of an unmarked, yet legal, bump, major roads leading to busy market centres are dotted with illegal bumps that are nothing more than uneven mounds of soil and rocks in some cases.

These illegal bumps are erected by civilians, ostensibly to prevent accidents, but end up achieving the opposite when unsuspecting drivers go over them.

Their proliferation, even as they signify driver indiscipline on our roads, has been alarming. They have become more harmful than useful, forcing the Kenya National Highways Authority to warn the public against erecting more.

And for good measure, not only have the bumps increased accidents and damage to vehicles, criminals have been taking advantage of them to pounce on drivers when they slow down in lonely places, especially at night.

Nevertheless, these bumps serve a good purpose in some places. It is therefore incumbent upon the highways authority to ensure that legal bumps, clearly marked, are erected at such places. More importantly, such bumps should be standardised and made safe for vehicles to go over comfortably.