Rethink new order on vehicle inspection

Road safety has become a priority of the Jubilee government, judging by the numerous measures being put in place to make driving on Kenyan roads a pleasant and safe experience.

For a long time, our roads have been unsafe, resulting in a high death toll and a higher injury statistic.

The need to reduce these numbers cannot be gainsaid.

Consequently, legislating on road safety has become an imperative. However, the Government has approached road safety concerns from the assumption that road accidents are entirely caused by reckless drivers and defective vehicles.

To a larger extent, that may be the case, but, besides enacting legislation on safety, has the Government played its role in the enhancement of safety?

With effect from January 2015, the Principal Secretary for Transport, Nduva Muli, has said that Public Service and privately-owned vehicles above four years old will undergo mandatory yearly inspections and have inspection certificates displayed alongside the insurance stickers.

The number of unroadworthy vehicles is on the increase and must be contained.

But then, does the Government have the capacity to physically check out every single vehicle plying our roads when it has been unable to inspect the PSVs that have become death traps?

Poorly-designed roads contribute to some of the accidents.

In other countries, motorists have gone to court and won awards against the Government for bad roads.

Given the high number of vehicles and the propensity for traffic police to solicit for bribes, the Government could simply be opening a new avenue of corruption similar to that experienced with the introduction of mobile courts.

Mr Muli had better rethink this new directive that could in the end serve little to reverse the massacre on our roads.