Police eye stiffer penalties to curb road carnage during Easter festivities

Traffic jam on the Nairobi-Nakuru Highway. Photo taken on December 24, 2018. [File, Standard]

Any driver found overlapping or speeding during the festive season will have his driving license suspended indefinitely.

In a raft of measures introduced by the traffic police department, Public Service Vehicles (PSV) whose speed governors are tampered with will also be de-registered.

This emerged as the department embarked on a countrywide crackdown targeting PSVs ahead of the Easter period.

During the crackdown along the Nairobi-Nakuru highway tens of passengers were left stranded after their vehicles were nabbed for flouting the law.

According to the regional Traffic Commandant Samuel Kimaru, the number of fatal accidents were on the rise mainly during the festive season.

Addressing the press in Naivasha after launching the crackdown, he said that the exercise would be extended to government vehicles.

“We have directed our officers to confiscate driving licenses of drives who are speeding and overlapping and we shall suspend the offenders from operating in our roads,” he said.

The senior officer warned that apart from arresting drivers for flouting traffic rules, they would also charge the owners of the defective vehicles.

He expressed his concern over the high number of drunk drivers on the roads warning that their days were numbered as they faced arrest.

The senior officer at the same time warned drivers who operated on routes not assigned to them that they faced arrest.

“During the festive season we have seen drivers from the main towns changing their routes to ferry passengers up country leading to accidents and we shall not tolerate this,” he said.

Kimaru at the same time noted that majority of fatal accidents in the county were occurring at night mainly along the busy highways.

“Traffic officers will operate even at night and we shall target even government vehicles and whoever is arrested shall face the law regardless of their status,” he said.