Police have officially taken charge of road safety enforcement function after the transport authority handed over Sh165 million worth of equipment.
The hand over follows a directive by President Uhuru Kenyatta on January 9, to get National Transport and Safety Authority(NTSA) officers off the road.
This was after a series of road carnage that saw months of November and December 2017 record highest fatalities of 240 and 356 fatalities respectively.
Francis Meja, NTSA Director-General, said the authority will now concentrate more on public awareness, training of motorists and coming up with policies and laws that will ensure road safety.
Among the equipment relinquished to the police included breathalyzers, famously known as alco-blow worth Sh23.7 million, 55 pieces of speed gun camera among them those with laser vision able to operate in the dark and 200 electronic gadgets which will be used to verify driving licenses and other documents.
Others are 12 BMW 700cc motorbikes, which Meja said will help the police in pursuing rogue boda boda operators and managing traffic.
“We do not have different objective with the police on road safety. We both want to reduce fatalities on our roads and in a small way we can, we will support,” said Meja during the handover witnessed by NTSA chair, Inspector General of Police Joseph Boinnet, and outgoing Principal Secretary Prof Paul Maringa.
Boinnet said the delay of the handover was due to ‘administrative procedures’ that had to be complied with. He said with the equipment, the police will be even more vigilant.
