Following the high rate of road accidents in the country,the government decided to re-introduce Michuki Rules which was to help curb road carnage.
A total of 2,917 road users have lost their lives since January, an increase of 250, with Nairobi county leading in the number of fatalities recorded nationally.
According to the latest report by the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) released on December 10, Nairobi county recorded 411 road fatalities followed by Kiambu county with 270 and Nakuru at 230.
Machakos, Kericho and Makueni counties have also recorded more than 100 deaths having 178,124 and 105 fatalities respectively.
At the same time, privately owned commercial and public service vehicles lead the way in causes of deaths of road users, accounting for 69 percent of the total deaths recorded this year recording 756, 672 and 570 deaths since the start of the year respectively.
Motorcycles, and hit and run vehicles follow closely with 486 and 373 deaths. Government vehicles at 37, tricycles at 10, pedal cycles at 11 and handcart at 1 close the list.
Pedestrians continue to top the list of deaths with 1,117 having died since January, compared to last year’s 999. Motorcyclists (boda boda) come in second with 775 deaths, an increase from last year’s 674.
Passengers come in third with 682 deaths, also an increase from last year’s 650, while pedal cyclists prop the list with 58 deaths, an increase of 4 deaths compared to a similar period last year.
The number of drivers who have died on the road has however reduced to 285 compared to 290 in 2017.
Further, the report shows that October, August and April were the leading months in terms of fatalities recording 289, 278 and 269 deaths respectively since January.
The three months are closely followed by September, February and July with 266, 257 and 248 respectively.
According to the report, October is the deadliest month with the highest number of deaths at 289. Last year’s darkest month in terms of road accidents was March with 269.
Interestingly, November recorded 246 deaths, an increase of 6 from 2017, despite the dreaded ‘Michuki rules’ being re-introduced in the public transport sector.
Of the total fatalities, males lead the list accounting for 2,330 deaths compared to only 592 females. However, the number of male deaths decreased this year from 2,342 during a similar period last year while that for females increased by 15.