Demand for public transport services has gone up as parents and guardians prepare to take their children back to school for the first term of the 2025 academic year. This has put parents and learners under pressure to board any available Public Service Vehicle, exposing them to risks of travelling in unroadworthy matatus.
To reduce the risk of road crashes involving school children, Mr Bora Guyo, the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) Central region manager, has urged parents and students to only board roadworthy matatus and avoid hitching rides in private cars.
He spoke after mounting a compliance inspection check on the Nyeri-Karatina road on Wednesday, January 8.
He advised all passengers to ensure that they board registered PSVs to help traffic police with accountability in the event of an incident in the course of the journey.
“We need to ensure that as our children go back to school, they do so safely. We are appealing to parents and guardians of school going children to ensure that their children board compliant vehicles.
“They should also avoid privately managed vehicles because most of them have not complied with the PSV regulations that we have put in place,” said Mr Guyo.
During the impromptu inspection, 15 vehicles and motorbikes were impounded for flouting various traffic rules.
NTSA has teamed up with the Nyeri traffic police to intensify inspections as schools are reopening and Kenyans travel back to work after the Christmas and New Year festivities.
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“Most of the cases that we are dealing with involve lack of motor vehicle inspection certificates, others have not renewed their drivers’ licenses and we have PSVs that have not complied with road service licenses,” Mr Guyo said.
“We are urging our motorists to ensure that they adhere to the safety regulations and to take their vehicles for inspection in good time to avoid being inconvenienced and also inconveniencing their customers.”
In the first nine months of last year, 3,369 people lost their lives in road crashes, according to a report released by the National Police Service on September 17.
Out of the fatalities, 1,281 were pedestrians, 825 motorcyclists, 654 passengers and 281 drivers. The number represented an increase in fatalities compared to 2023 when 3,151 perished in road accidents during a similar period.
– Wangari Mwangi and Mumbi Kinaro
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