State mum over school bus operating outside regulated time

The wreckage of a school bus following an accident in which 10 pupils from St. Gabriel Primary school were killed on Saturday night. [Dennis Kavisu, Standard]

The Government will give a comprehensive report today on a road accident involving a school bus in Mwingi town on Saturday night. Ten pupils were killed in the crash.

The St Gabriel Primary School vehicle was travelling at 11pm even though school buses are prohibited from travelling after 6pm and before 6am.

Education Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed, who visited the injured at Kenyatta National Hospital, declined to comment on the matter yesterday, saying she could not go into details of the accident she described as very sad.

“It is a sad day. I am told that most of them were Standard Eight candidates. You can imagine the situation,” she said.

The pupils were returning from a trip in Mombasa. More than 30 were injured in the accident.

The Traffic Amendment Act 2017 introduced the new rules governing school transport to enhance the safety of learners.

Last year, Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i, who then headed the education docket, issued new directives that not only compelled schools to paint their buses yellow but also restricted travel to between 6am and 6pm.

By August 2, 2018, the CS was supposed to have come up with regulations stipulating how the Traffic Amendment Act 2017 on school transport was to be implemented.

According to the regulations, a school bus should also carry a specific number of learners at any given time. The rules were also meant to spell out the frequency school bus inspections.