One of the basic requirements for public service vehicles (PSV) is to have a licence from the Transport Licensing Board, popularly known as TLB. On this, the route a vehicle is licensed to ply is clearly indicated. If there are to be deviations, there must be good reasons for it and a new temporary licence issued.
In light of the Saturday morning accident at Soysambu, Gilgil, which claimed 20 lives, were these rules observed? It is necessary to pose this question because the ill-fated bus is reported to have been licensed to operate within Nairobi only.
This also brings into question the role of traffic police officers and their counterparts from the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) for whom not just road safety, but enforcing adherence to road regulations is a priority.
With police checks located about every ten kilometres on major roads and NTSA patrols, how did the killer bus leave Nairobi without being detected and detained and especially after the Sacco under which the bus was licensed has disowned it, saying it was suspended on July 28, 2016 for flouting rules?
NTSA and the traffic police department cannot continue to treat human life as statistics to be released every half-year or so. They must get off their laurels and do what they are supposed to do. If these institutions exerted the same zeal they show in alcoblow on enforcing road rules, accidents would go down drastically.
