Road carnage exposes policy failure and weak enforcement of traffic law

The Christmas season provides a unique opportunity for families and communities to share joy, peace and laughter after many days of toil. For tens of households however, what was supposed to be a joyous reunion with loved ones has been turned into mourning.

Data indicates that at least 25 people perished on December 23 alone in 16 accidents spread across 13 counties. Hundreds more lie in hospital beds. These are only the reported cases, how many more are unreported yet? Online search indicates that in 2025, based on data attributable to the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA), road fatalities were 4,458, up by 3.4 per cent from 2024.

Roads and Transport Cabinet Secretary Davis Chirchir reported about a week ago that accidents costs the economy up to Sh800 billion each year. Returns from an AI google search estimate that road accidents impose massive costs to economies projected at 3–5 per cent of the GDP through direct expenses (medical, property destruction and funerals) and indirect losses including lost productivity, reduced labour supply, strain on healthcare/social systems and pain/suffering.

From this data, developing and poor countries are the hardest hit, negatively impacting healthcare budgets, undermining investments and slowing down general economic growth.

In our grief, the difficult questions that no one seems to want to face head-on are: who should take responsibility for this madness? When will it ever end?

As a country, this seem to have been accepted as normal. Families of victims quietly take-up the burden and move on, unless the victim is a high profile officer of the State or the tragedy is large enough to offer an opportunity to reap some political dividends for the political class.

In our dream Singapore, the government is seriously worried with increasing road accidents. According to 2024 data, the government of Singapore is very worried that 131 fatalities were reported in 2023-2024 and 7,049 injured. Thus, the proportion of road fatalities to the total population of 6.11 million is 0.002 per cent. The Kenyan fatality rate based on the mid-year population estimate by Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) of 53.3 million people is 0.009 per cent.

In China, official data indicates significant declines in road fatalities despite moving hundreds of millions of people across its massive landmass each year. In quarter one of 2025, the country recorded about 3,205 fatalities. Accidents causing at least three deaths per accident declined by 34 per cent in between 2021 -2025 compared to 2016-2020 medium term plan of the country.

The Chinese data is interesting because Quarter one coincides with the New Year festive season, the main holiday for the country, equivalent to our Christmas. Official data indicates that over 500 million domestic trips were recorded over the eight-day holiday. Some data projects that if intra-provincial travels were factored in, the trips can stagger to as high as nine billion trips over the 40 day festive season for new year.

The choice of comparative data from these two countries is significant for our analysis here. This is because President Ruto desires to take us to Singapore while the Chinese have taken total control of our infrastructure projects. But unlike here in our homeland, authorities in both countries seems to take full responsibility over transport safety for their citizens.

Despite having several road agencies and a dedicated traffic police unit, the carnage continues unabated each year.

Multifaceted problem

While the political elite seems to imagine constructing legacy monuments in infrastructure is the solution, the technical policy documents paint a gloomy picture for the country. The Integrated National Transport Policy (INTP), updated in 2024 paints a much multi-layered problem that demands a holistic strategic approach rather than tender-driven pieces of infrastructure investments.

The Policy highlights the primary challenges as a general lack of investments towards a Mass Rapid Transport System interfacing road, rail, water and air transport; massive growth in non-motorized transport alternatives, especially motor cycles that are not factored in infrastructure investments; powerful private sector cartels that control public transport; and a widespread failure by enforcement agencies to enforce traffic rules and discipline on the road.

According to this policy, the net outcome of this mess is a cut-throat competition for the available road spaces among pedestrians, cyclists, motorist and often times livestock.

The absence of an effective and efficient public transport system forces many folks to revert to private vehicles and motor cycles, leading to congestion, especially within the urban and peri-urban areas.

In the rural areas, the INTP estimates that about 89 per cent to rural populace relies on non-motorized and intermediate means of transport, yet they are not factored in infrastructure investments. While the policy indicates considerable effort has been made to develop rural infrastructure, estimating that about 10,000 kilometers of rural roads have been done in the last two decades, the non-motorized transport is rarely factored.

For example, in places like Nairobi, it took the intervention of the courts to force the government to start building pedestrian walkways along city roads. In majority of the peri-urban towns in the country, motor cycles and tuk-tuks have become the primary means of public transport, as opposed to playing their intended role of the last mile connector.

From a strategic developmental perspective, it still baffles me how professional Engineers, Urban planners and Developmental Economists in government fail to conceptualize the totality of the country’s transport demand for both today and 50 or 100 years ahead like the countries that we aspire to be like. The funny thing is, these senior public officials are ever globe-trotting on benchmarking tours funded by taxpayers.

Traveling Won’t stop

The government’s assumption that road carnage will somehow go away on its own or issuing stale advisories for motorists to take care on the road is the most dangerous and lazy policy option that any administration can take. Yes, road users indiscipline is a major factor in our present predicament. But why are the road users so undisciplined in the first place?

Is it not because the security apparatus and regulators that are supposed to enforce the law and discipline have turned our roads into a multi-billion criminal enterprise of bribes? Is it not because politicians, police and bureaucratic elites are not only major investors in the industry, but also use the powerful cartels in the industry to clean their illicit wealth?

A google search on why people travel during major festive seasons clearly indicate that this peculiar human behaviour will never end. People travel because of the need to re-unite with family and friends, ritualistic traditions, desire to create shared memories, escape from daily routines for relaxation, desire to experience new cultures and logistical opportunity since Christmas offers the best chance for majority of people to be out of their work stations.

All these factors lean towards behavioural economics that demands that it is public policy and our development planning that must bend to accommodate our inherent human behaviour, not to imagine that people should change their ways. While a minority of us - like yours truly - are able to plan our travels outside the peak hours, the masses will continue with their peculiar habits.

The CS and enforcement agencies must, therefore, take responsibility for majority of these accidents -period!

From this column, we say THANK YOU to our loyal readers in 2025. Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and see you in 2026, Inshallah.