Strictly enforce order on rogue State drivers

Road indiscipline remains a major headache in the country today. Over the years, there have been attempts to restore order on the roads; from the formation of the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) in 2012 to the introduction of mobile traffic courts in 2013. The latter, however, were discontinued following hue and cry that they were merely conduits for corruption.

To some extent, NTSA has infused some semblance of sanity in an industry that had become a law unto itself. Still, more needs to be done. The enforcement of traffic rules has over the years targeted mostly private and Public Service Vehicles (PSVs), and for good reason. A greater percentage of road accidents and death has been blamed on PSVs known for notoriously flouting the Highway Code. Often, PSVs are overloaded, are driven carelessly at high speed by a drunk-sodden driver. In most cases, the vehicles are defective and God forbid, uninsured. In 2015 alone, there were 3,057 deaths from road accidents. Yet all this has been going on with the full knowledge of a seemingly inept, complicit Traffic Department.

But while vehicles with GK or parastatal number plates have escaped the scrutiny of traffic police officers, they too break the rules. In most cases, GK vehicles overtake on the curbside and with hazard lights on, are driven on the wrong lane. They weave dangerously in and out of lanes inconveniencing other motorists. At times, security officers attached to the VIP on transit wave guns and other weapons at law-abiding citizens waiting patiently in the long queues.

The call by the Deputy Inspector of Police Joel Kitili to arrest drivers of Government vehicles flouting traffic rules is therefore, long overdue.

At all times, (other in cases of emergency) the law must be applied indiscriminately to avoid embittering citizens suffering the inconvenience brought on them by the ineptitude of the VIPs being ferried in the vehicles shoving them out of the way.

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