Ban on night travel and accident figures that don't add up

Last December the government announced that no PSVs will be allowed to carry passengers between 6pm and 6am without a night travel permit from the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA). The ban was however met with opposition as bus operators took to the courts seeking a lift of the ban.

In one of the cases filed by the operators, High Court judge Justice George Odunga observed that a total ban on night travel infringed on Kenyans rights on freedom of movement. He said the government should have resorted to less restrictive means of curbing road carnage and not restrict movement. The CS transport thereafter beat a hasty retreat and said there was no ban on night travel, just a small thing of obtaining a special licence after complying with a raft of requirements.

Fast forward to last week; The chairman of NTSA, Mr. Lee Kinyanjui reported that the ban on night travel by public service vehicles has resulted in a 25% reduction in road accident deaths compared to a similar period last year. He said, “We are happy that the travel restrictions that were implemented in December 2013 have resulted in a dramatic fall in traffic deaths.”  I must state that I am not a statistician, neither do I claim to be a mathematician, but this figures have nothing “happy” about them Mr. Chairman. When you reduce the number of passengers by 50%, the drop in deaths should be also reduce by 50% or more. People do not die in accidents if they do not travel.  Mr. Chairman, your figures and happiness with them therefore makes mathematical nonsense. In addition there were more night and day travelers this time last year because of elections. Comparatively, I believe we are worse off than we were last year if everything is put into perspective.

I empathized with a gentleman who had travelled from Mombasa to attend his son’s parents’ day at a school in Kajiado over the weekend. He said, previously, he would travel by night bus, attend the function during the day and travel back the same evening. With this ban, he travels on Friday, attend the function on Saturday, travel back on Sunday. He has to needlessly spend two nights in Nairobi not to mention the expenses. This is a classic example of the reactive nature that has characterized the Jubilee government’s way of problem solving.