Caroline Mutoko Responds To Uproar Following Nairobi Expressway Accident 

Media personality Caroline Mutoko has responded to intense criticism by Kenyans on Twitter (KOT) who tore into her remarks on the tragic road accident along the Nairobi Expressway at Mlolongo Toll Station. 

In a charged message shared via her YouTube channel on Tuesday, July 5, Mutoko fired at netizens who believed that her sentiments were aimed at belittling Public Service Vehicles (PSV) and widening the social gap that already exists between the rich and the poor. 

She expressed concern regarding the conduct of the matatus on city roads, noting that by letting them use President Uhuru Kenyatta’s flagship project, their overspeeding could pose a risk to other road users and passengers. 

Accident At Nairobi Expressway Mlolongo Toll Station on July 4, 2022. /TWITTER

"I want to talk about the myopia of anybody thinking that my concern about PSVs being on the Expressway is about PSVs. It is about the fact that as a people we are indisciplined, as Nairobians we are grossly indisciplined, and PSVs in Nairobi are massively indisciplined. We are courting trouble…” she said. 

“There is absolutely no problem with PSVs being in the Expressway on condition that their speed governors are back on. It should be a prerequisite for PSVs to have speed governor on the expressway.” 

Mutoko went on to accuse Kenyans of driving carelessly on the roads, a matter which puts the passengers in danger. 

She further called for the implementation of speed governors on the matatus before allowing them to use the road.

“You will not get me to back down on one thing, that having PSVs on the Expressway without insisting they have speed governors is courting trouble and this cannot be about the vehicles, this is about the passengers," she added. 

Seemingly unafraid of a KOT uproar manifesting into an ugly public confrontation, Mutoko urged Kenyans to desist from making the whole matter about other agendas that are not about saving lives. 

"Stop giving nonsense, when I say we are courting trouble, we are, and you know I'm right...shame on you for making this about anything but lives. This is about lives and the fact that we are blood-letting on this Expressway. Before we wake up and get serious, we will kill many road users. 

“We cannot be trusted to behave. We have already proved it, I don’t know how many times Mlolongo is going to be built and rebuilt…and in this country and in this city, PSVs, we will wait for the day that vehicle will come from above, mark my words,” she went on.

The accident was the second to occur on the spot in just one week and had involved an Embassava Sacco matatu plying the Nairobi-Embakasi route and a personal vehicle.

CCTV footage of the crash was later shared on social media depicting exactly what happened. However, it was Mutoko's comment on the accident that earned her stinging responses from the defiant KOT.

She had particularly expressed surprise at the matatus using the multi-billion road, even though Moja Expressway, the parent company managing the Nairobi Expressway, gave the green light for matatus to use the road.

However, by using it, matatus will pay more, as well as buses. A bus for example is charged four times more than a saloon car, which pays between Ksh120 to Ksh360.

A toll station along the Nairobi Expressway. /DAILY NATION