Kenya: Govt in Partnership to Reduce Road Carnage

By Ben Omondi

NAIROBI---The campaign, one of the many road safety initiatives sponsored by the World Health Organization (WHO), is designed to help reduce road deaths, globally estimated at 1.3 million annually.

Speaking at the launch of the campaign, roads minister Franklin Bett said the efforts by the government, private sector and donor organizations are recording positive results.

"We have seen a remarkable reduction in deaths on our roads in the past one year. The fatalities decreased from 3,600 deaths in 2008 to 2,600 deaths in 2009. This is a noticeable decrease, however, we would like to see zero deaths on our roads," said Bett.

Kenya is the first country in sub-Saharan Africa to roll out the global campaign, billed as the largest private sector road safety sensitization initiative.

Word Bank’s road safety specialist Victor Ako Mengot said the objective of the campaign is to reduce thousands of unnecessary injuries and deaths, often caused by drivers and car occupants not following simple instructions such as wearing a seatbelt, using a child restraint, checking head rests as well as faulty tyres.

“Road crashes kill at least 1.3 million people each year and injure 50 million, a toll greater than deaths from malaria, with up to 90 percent of these road casualties occurring in low and middle income countries,” said Mengot, adding that WHO projects that by 2015, road crashes would be the leading cause of premature death and disability for children aged 5 and above.

Road accidents occur mainly due to human error (85 per cent), road environment (4 per cent) while the rest (11 per cent) is caused by conditions of vehicles. Road users also have little or no understanding of traffic rules and regulations, while others fail to be responsible while on the road.

According to the World Bank, road carnage has significant economic implications, with the economic cost of road accidents and fatalities in Kenya being estimated to been in excess of US $ 50 million.

Some of the deaths have been blamed on poor road networks, a situation that has led the World Bank to commit more than US $ 460 million for the development of the country’s Northern Corridor to improve the road network.

Currently, road transport accounts for approximately 80 per cent of the traffic on Kenya’s roads and the country’s transport sector has registered noticeable growth of about 6.3 per cent between 2003 and 2007.

The road safety education and awareness week is the beginning of a series of campaigns that will culminate in the UN’s launch of the Global Decade of Action for Road safety in May 2011. The aim of the Decade of Action is to mobilise resources, develop institutions and plan interventions that will reduce road accident by 50 per cent by 2015.