The exit of Roads and Transport Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen should pave the way for an overhaul of the National Transport and Safety Authority(NTSA).
(NTSA) in a bid to curb accidents that continue to claim lives daily, road safety lobbies say. While welcoming President William Ruto’s dismissal of the Cabinet following weeks of bloody demonstrations by Kenyans led by the Gen-Z youths, the groups said the current NTSA board should be dissolved and a new management team put in place.
Led by Kenya Road Safety Association chairman David Kiarie, the officials attributed the runaway road carnage to lack of commitment to safety and a corruption culture that they claim the dismissed CS had condoned.
Kiarie, accompanied by Road Safety and Speed Governors Association acting Secretary General John Mutisya, said the President must now act decisively after their earlier pleas for action to put the road carnage on check “fell on deaf ears.”
New board members They also want the former management board under the chairmanship of Aden Noor reinstated after it was removed from office by Murkomen soon after initiating a move to probe the Director General George Njao who was sent on compulsory leave pending investigations, a decision which the former Minister overturned when he took over office.
Consequently, the former CS appointed a new board led by Manoj Shah of Kingsway Tyres with new board members who include Johnson Losilian, Paul Posho and Lilian Mo[1]gendi to replace Omar Haji, Charles Nyabuto and Simon Kalekem, whose appointment he revoked.
Minimise accidents “With the exit of Murkomen, we need a thorough clean-up of the NTSA in all positions of management so as to return sanity to the roads and minimise the accident death toll which is now above the 4,000 mark in just six months,” he said
“All the senior directors and management officials including those at the vehicle inspection centres should be shown the door over incompetence and corruption.We recommend that the current Board of Directors be replaced by the previous one headed by Mr Noor,” Kiarie further said.
He added that whoever is appointed the next Roads CS must be a professional conversant with, and dedicated to road safety measures and preferably an engineer.
Kiarie also recommend that former NTSA Director General Francis Meja should be brought back to the Ministry possibly as Principal Secretary as he was committed to safety issues during his tenure.
The sentiments were echoed by Mutisya who asked the President to move with speed and effect changes at the road safety Authority.
“A wind of change is blowing across Ke[1]nya where even the Inspector General has resigned. This new should extend to NTSA whose management has been sleeping as people perish on our roads as a result of accidents which could have been avoided,” said Mutisya
