Opinion:We need innovative, humane traffic laws in Kenya

If you are a driver of any vehicle (even a mkokoteni is a vehicle), a makanga, a bodaboda rider, a cyclist, a passenger, or a pedestrian, traffic laws engulf your life and the risk of being arrested, detained for hours or even days, dragged to court and fined massive sums of money, or sent to jail, is a real one.

The massive increase in fines for traffic offences since 2012 has created havoc all over the country, with the members of the police force using duress of heavy fines as a bait to further roadside corruption at a level unprecedented and uncontrollable by entities like the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission.

It was anticipated by the Legislature that the enhanced penalties for traffic offences would sufficiently deter their commission and bring sanity to our roads.

The irony is that corrupt police officers are now using the enhanced penalties as a bargaining tool and have raised the quantum of the bribes they solicit from offenders, not to mention the harassment of the motoring fraternity.

The days when a bond to attend court used to be given to an errant road user are all gone.

Cash bail at police stations is flavoured with hours in the police cells and the possibility of being dragged to a mobile court is ever increasing. The best common sense solution is to obey the law to the letter. Don't use your mobile phone while driving, fasten the safety belt (front and rear passengers too), carry your driving licence 24/7, and the first aid kit, the safety triangles and the fire extinguisher.

Do not have bald tyres, do not double park...

And remember to carry lots and lots of money to bribe if you are so inclined or to pay fines or cash bail. The best is to have your phone loaded with enough M-pesa cash.

The possibility of the police preying on the lone vulnerable driver with excessive, unwarranted and dubious fault-finding will always remain.

The 'Alcoblow' laws have added another dimension and perhaps made our roads a little safer at the cost of the quantum of bribes becoming higher and higher.

Add to that the real-life difficulties of paying fines when you are in a dark, crowded cell (say, in Naivasha!) without a friend or a soul to help, but thank God, that there are 'sharks' all around in the form of uniformed police, prison orderlies and other brokers who can help you get out one way or the other, at a cost, of course.

I digress.

Why have we reached this stage where citizens are being harassed in this fashion with the law enforcing authorities doing very little to assist in lessening the plight of the road users? Fake ID cards, River-Road produced licences, and fake log-books have resulted in, I am told, about a million traffic cases all over the country remaining undisposed of as the culprits have absconded, jumped bail or forfeited their cash bails.

Court orders for their warrants of arrest are orders to be mocked, for our police force just has no resources to pursue ordinary Kenyans (VIPs are chased with greater venom), and even if traced, a few thousand shillings, it is said, can sort the matter out.

There are some bodies, notably the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission, the Automobile Association of Kenya, the Police Oversight Authority, the Ombudsman, the Kenya Human Rights Commission and the Chief Justice, who must devise procedural ways of humanely taking it upon themselves to educate Kenyans on what should transpire when a traffic offence is committed.

What then is the way forward? First, we must contrive to deal with traffic offenders humanely. Courts must not dump offenders in cells, and appointed officers must devise procedures where pleading not guilty should not be made a torturous process. Pleading guilty must also be rewarded.

The law must treat traffic offenders differently from the criminals and in this respect traffic courts need to be segregated from the mainstream criminal courts whereby an offender can expeditiously plead, even online, and move on.

With all the new gadgetry and modern cars, law makers must consider increasing the maximum speed limit to 120kph on the highways and 80kph in towns (50kph speed on Waiyaki Way where EACC nabbed some alleged corrupt policeman is absurd at best).

Innovative and non-conventional methods need to be tried. Police officers must be given powers to detain an errant vehicle, say a matatu or any other vehicle, on the roadside for a minimum of one hour and then release it after a warning. Will this not bring sanity to the public sector transport? Other ways of controlling traffic in other countries have proved very successful.

In Germany, for instance, no heavy haulage (other than for emergency services) is allowed on a Sunday, thus barring all trucks, lorries and heavy vehicle drivers getting mandatory rest and making highways less crowded on Sundays. In this fashion, motoring over the weekends has been made a pleasure, and generated greater economic activity. Reported six-hour delays at Gilgil weighbridge or a queue of six kilometres at Mariakani or seven-hour waits in courts are not required in modern Kenya.

Something must be done.