Public Service Vehicles have been suspended from night travel by the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) after the bloody Migaa accident that claimed 36 lives in the wee hours of Sunday morning.
NTSA Director General Francis Meja said travel time has been restricted to between 6 am and 7 pm.
“Over the recent past, our records indicate that majority of crashes are occurring during the night and in order to review the effectiveness of the current measures in place to improve road safety, the authority in consultation with other relevant government agencies suspends night travels for all distance public service vehicles from December 31st,” read a joint statement from NTSA and traffic department of the police as quoted by the Star.
The accident occurred at 3:30am. It involved a Nairobi-bound bus which collided head-on with a truck headed to the Eldoret.
The driver of the truck together with the loader died on the spot. 28 bodies were retrieved from the ill-fated bus.
The tragic accident drew the attention of Parliament’s Vice Chairman of Transport and Infrastructure committee and Gatundu South MP Moses Kuria who said he will introduce a motion seeking to return all road functions to the National Police Service.
In a long facebook post, he said NTSA has been overwhelmed by its mandate.
“As the Vice Chair of the Transport and Infrastructure committee in the National Assembly, I will drive the move to return enforcement work to the National Police Service…
NTSA was supposed to be a policy and standards organ. The work of enforcement belongs to the police. I think someone in the past got over ambitious or maybe they fell in love with the alcoblow. NTSA is hopelessly understaffed to carry out enforcement. And it is not even their job in the first place.”
Kuria also said that there should be a six-month ban for PSV travelling during the night until the road carnage dragon is slayed.
“Can we agree to go back to bans on PSV night travel for the next 6 months as we make the necessary changes? May the Salgaa victims rest in peace.”