MPs sitting in National Assembly’s Transport Committee decried increased road crashes in recent months – An audit report by the committee indicated 507 people died in road accidents and over one thousand others injured in July and August 2018 alone . The legislators wanted Boinnet to explain what the traffic police were doing to tame the deadly crashes .
Chairman David Pksoing blamed traffic officers for being ineffective and only generated statistics of accidents instead of developing remedies Members of the National Assembly have summoned Inspector General of Police Joseph Boinnet over a reported increase in road crashes across the country, has established. MPs sitting in the Transport, Public Works and Housing Committee raised concern that rarely has a day passed with a report of a road crash most of which have claimed lives or crippled road users.
David Pkosing who chairs the committee said Boinnet was required to explain why traffic police department was doing very little to establish the causes of the crashes which would have been otherwise avoided through close monitoring. Pkosing said besides Kenya National Highways Authority (KeNHA) and National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) being mandated to oversee transport affairs, traffic police officers also had an important role in ensuring safety in the roads.
“The IG must know why this is happening and explain what measures they are employing to save lives. It is questionable that we have a traffic commandant whose command on police officers is restricted on generating statistics. What remedies are they employing to curb road carnage?” posed Pkosing.
There was confusion on who had mandate to oversee transport affairs in the country after President Uhuru Kenyatta on Tuesday, January 9, told NTSA officers to keep off Kenyan roads and allow traffic police officers to carry out law enforcement. Statistics released by NTSA on Monday, August 13 showed 1,859 people had died in road crashes in 2018.
The legislators were prompted by to summon Boinnet and KeNHA Director General Peter Mundinia after their audit indicated 507 Kenyans had died in road accidents and over a thousand Mwingi Central MP Gideon Mulyungi further accused KeNHA of being lax in executing its mandate saying his efforts to have officers from the parastatal to assess road signage and identify black spots in his constituency never bore fruits.