Grand changes will restore calm on our killer roads

The wreckage of the Nairobi Bus and a Truck that collided head on at Migaa area near Salgaa along the Nakuru- Eldoret Highway on December 31, 2017. 36 people died in the accident and scores injured. [Kipsang Joseph| Standard]

When a City Shuttle bus overturned in the Nairobi CBD early this week, the late Transport minister John Michuki must have turned with rage in his final resting place. He must have been furious that chaos still reign in the transport sector. Lives are being lost in a scale that should not only attract stern action from the Government, but heads must also roll. The impunity displayed on our roads is symptomatic of the lethargy in our authorities. Ideally, the Government has blood on its hands now that nearly 200 lives were lost in December alone. These victims were breadwinners for their families and young promising people whose contribution to nation-building has been needlessly ended.

Now that Transport Cabinet Secretary James Macharia has been retained, he must oversee an epic shift in the passenger transport sector to restore sanity on our roads. He must have that fire in the belly and face the cabal of killers masquerading as matatu owners or operators. It must not be business as usual for him, the Government and Kenyans themselves. When the famous Michuki Rules were introduced, many Kenyans backed them and even walked to work, until all the Passenger Service Vehicles (PSVs) complied.