One of the cameras will monitor speeding on Mombasa Road/MIKE KARIUKI
Traffic Commandant Samuel Kimaru said that speed has been a major cause of accidents but which will now be checked forthwith.
Kimaru who spoke on Tuesday after receiving 10 speed cameras from the National Road Safety Trust said that traffic police checking speed will now expand their operational areas.
In Nairobi, Kimaru said one camera will be dedicated to Mombasa Road where motorists are reported to speed early morning and on weekends.
“Speed has been a menace on the roads but I am sure that with these cameras we will achieve impressive results. When arrested we will not compromise with you (offenders) because the cameras have printable data.”
“We will take all offenders to court. That’s where they will find justice,” he affirmed after the total of the cameras was increased to 16.
He has called on the public to support road safety measures by the traffic department saying that it was pivotal in the success by the former Transport Minister John Michuki in bringing sanity to the transport sector.
“In Michuki’s time, passengers refused to be carried as excess commuters but now they are doing it: why are they not saying no?” he asked. “They even resist arrest and want police officers to let them to go scot-free,” he added.
“Even very senior people who are caught driving on the wrong side will call me and tell me they are being harassed by officers but now I am saying carry your own cross,” he said.
So far 1,174 people have died from road accidents since the beginning of the year mostly involving people aged between 15 and 44 years.
A further 2,275 people have sustained serious injuries from accidents since the year began.
“People must take extra caution on the matter of speed especially young people, some take alcohol and drive some lose concentration as they talk to friends and end up causing accidents,” he warned.
Kenya has one of the most wanting records in fatalities recorded from road carnage with more than 14,700 people killed in road accidents since 2009 while another over 40,000 having sustained serious injuries in the same period.
The Russian-made speed cameras record on a memory card the speed at which a vehicle is moving, the picture of the vehicle and area in which the data is captured.
Transport PS Karanja Kibicho who also spoke at the handover at General Motors said that there was need to pass regulations placing requirements of audit on the cameras.
“We will create a small statute that will demand that these cameras are audited every end month to prove that those caught over speeding are prosecuted that policemen are not compromised,” he said.
Among members of the National Road Safety Trust who contributed the cameras are the General Motors, East African Breweries Limited, Total Kenya and Safaricom.
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