Murkomen Goes After Rogue School Buses, Vans, Matatus After Accidents
Murkomen moved to immediately ban from the roads school vans, buses, and matatus that are unroadworthy.
Marvin Chege 
Transport Cabinet Secretary (CS) Kipchumba Murkomen on Wednesday, April 19 announced new measures after six students were killed in a tragic road accident along the Nairobi-Nakuru Highway.
In a statement, the CS consoled the families of the victims vowing that the directives will create a safe environment for pupils and students using school transport to and from home.
"On the issue of transportation of school children, it is prudent to enhance safety especially now that the schools are closing and our children are travelling home," Murkomen stated.
Murkomen moved to immediately ban from the roads school vans, buses, and matatus that are unroadworthy. He further ordered that school transportation should be allowed between 5 am and 10 pm as outlined in the Traffic (Amendment) Act, 2017.
In addition, all school heads must ensure that the school buses should be retrofitted with functional seatbelts that must be worn at all times.
Murkomen stated that the Intelligent Road Safety Management System (IRSMS) will be implemented immediately to ensure all heavy commercial vehicles weighing 3,049 kilograms and above are fitted with speed limiters.
The transport CS further directed speed limiter vendors to install approved gadgets that will limit speeds and record speed data after every five seconds.
“In compliance with KS 22932018 all the 57 licensed speed limiter vendors MUST install approved gadgets that will limit speed, record speed data after every 5 seconds, transmit data to both the NTSA and the vendor servers and report violations in real-time,” he stated.
Murkomen also revealed that a multi-agency clinic shall be formed to ensure public service vehicles operate with functional speed limiters,
“To ensure all public service vehicles operate with functional speed limiters, a multi-agency clinic shall be formed to verify and validate ALL speed limiters from 25th April 2023 to 31st May 2023. All stakeholders including public transport operators, speed limiter vendors and the National Police Service will be incorporated into this multi-agency exercise,” Murkomen added.
He further directed the Kenya National Highways Authority (KeNHA), Kenya Urban Road Authority (KURA) and the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) to complete the ongoing road safety audits on all blackspots and ensure safety interventions. Additionally, he instructed the road agencies to ensure cameras have been installed at all blackspots.
The accident near Delamare farm left at least six students from Mbihi Friends High School dead after a vehicle from SWAT Sacco carrying 12 passengers inclusive of the driver, collided with a lorry.
"It happened that the passenger vehicle was trying to overtake a long fleet of vehicles near the Delamare Farm, when unfortunately, a lorry was also approaching and the driver had nowhere to go to," Emmanuel Bowen, Naivasha Sub-county Commander, explained.
The police blamed the impatience of the driver's habits as the cause of the accident while rushing to Nairobi from Western Kenya before he made a catastrophic miscalculation at 2 pm on the fateful day.
The passenger vehicle was sandwiched on three sides with no room for escape as the lorry driver was unable to brake on time as the matatu driver was coming at a high speed. The matatu was powerless to stop the crash as it plunged into a nearby ditch, killing five occupants on the spot.
"The victims were all girls students who were travelling home from school," police stated.
Wreckage of the matatu that was involved in an accident near Delamere farm in Naivasha along the Nairobi-Nakuru Highway. /STANDARD DIGITAL
