Trucks to be fitted with monitoring gadgets to boost road safety

Transport Cabinet Secretary Davis Chirchir before the National Assembly Departmental Committee on Transport and Infrastructure at Bunge Towers, Parliament, Nairobi, on August 14, 2025. [Elvis Ogina, Standard The government plans to have long-distance trucks fitted with telematics in the drivers' cabin in an effort to boost road safety. A telematics system is a tracking device that captures and transmits data about a vehicle's location, speed, and performance. Transport Cabinet Secretary, Davis Chirchir on Thursday told the National Assembly Committee on Transport and Infrastructure that there are situations where drivers are on the roads for more hours than would otherwise be required, a situation which causes extreme fatigue. "We have situations where the drivers are driving more hours than would otherwise be the case and we want to employ telematics so that most of the trucks will have an observation system within the drivers' cabin," he told the committee. The CS also said that regulations have been drafted to create resting places for trucks along the highways, and would be presented to Parliament in due course. "We appreciate that sometimes, if there is a parking, the driver could possibly park and if not, you tend to keep pushing yourself, yet you are tired," he explained. On inspection of vehicles, the CS said that it is a major course of concern and the Government is seeking to ensure that only roadworthy vehicles operate. He said the Ministry is working on a policy that will make inspection of vehicles not a preserve of the Government. "We are working on regulations which will allow inspection of vehicles to be franchised, licensed and done by those who are licensed in every corner of the country so that we do not have vehicles that are having challenges or unroadworthy on our roads," he said. But even as the Government put in place these measures, the CS said that all Kenyans must take responsibility because there are instances where blame has been apportioned to some road users. "We have tended to apportion responsibility where pedestrians, boda bodas or motorists are careless, and sometimes we cross the roads without looking to confirm there are no vehicles and expect the drivers to take care of us. We want to urge Kenyans to exercise caution in various spheres from pedestrians to boda bodas, cyclists to drivers," he said. The CS told the committee that the Government will deploy technology, including digital systems, to curb road carnage. At the same time, he said the Government, working with Kenya Red Cross Society, is reviewing all black spots in the country and is seeking to provide a budget for widening some of the sections, for instance, the Nithi bridge amongst others. According to the CS, crash data indicates a total of 2,933 fatalities reported between January and August 10, 2025 and 80 in the last few days. Following the spike in road accidents, the CS said officials drawn from various agencies are conducting safety audits on the road segments to identify deficiencies and reconstruct the scenes. The team is expected to complete the exercise within the next seven days and submit technical recommendations for implementation to avert unnecessary loss of lives.

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Trucks to be fitted with monitoring gadgets to boost road safety

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