NTSA Director for Road Safety Mathew Munyao says 115 people died in the last 15 days, a marked improvement from the 302 who died last year.
Munyao also says most of the deaths this year have been caused by private vehicles, and not Public Service Vehicles.
Speaking at a forum for the Matatu Owners Association in Nairobi, Munyao attributed this to improved discipline of matatu operators.
“We cannot keep talking about losing lives in road accidents, as an authority we cannot just sit down and do nothing; we must reduce the number of lives and people injured on our roads. Stricter measures must be applied to ensure that this is reduced,” he said.
“We know there has been a marked improvement in terms of road discipline in the form of accidents especially on fatal or serious accidents. We have seen a dramatic decline. Majority of those accidents are caused by private vehicles not the matatus, this is a very commendable thing.”
On his part, Traffic Commandant Charlton Mureithi says although the number of accidents has reduced, more traffic police officers will be deployed to various areas to enforce traffic rules.
“Without the traffic lights being synchronised we will have the traffic officers on the road for awhile, we must persevere! Their role is to remove obstructions or deal with accidents and of course facilitate when we have very important people (VIPs) or others, that is when the traffic police become important,” he said.
“If there is an officer who is violating (any rules), please let us deal with the individual and not blame the entire traffic police. There are commandants either on the ground or in their offices who individuals can report to and we will deal with that individual.”