Traffic police in Kwale intensify crackdown over increased accidents
Wreckage of the matatu in which 18 people died after it hit an oncoming trailer along the Mombasa - Nairobi highway.
The National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) officers will support police in Kwale in a traffic crackdown meant to contain rising road carnage in the county.
Kwale police boss Josephat Kinyua said the crackdown will be even more stringent going forward.
Mr Kinyua said the operation will continue until discipline is achieved on the roads.
Last Friday, 21 people died in a crash at Taru area after a matatu ferrying passengers rammed into a lorry on the Nairobi-Mombasa highway.
Two more lives were lost on Beach Road and Kombani on Sunday morning in separate accidents.
Police said they had arrested a driver who hit a motorcycle rider along Beach Road in Diani after they found that he was driving while drunk.
“Some public service vehicle operators have been overloading their vehicles and speeding. We have to be cautious on the roads to protect lives,” he said in an interview.
On Sunday, police reinstated roadblocks in various parts of the country to impose the mandatory breathalyser tests.
Those found drunk-driving risk a fine not exceeding Sh100,000 or a jail term of not more than two years or both.
This comes as the Traffic (Amendment) Act of 2022 that has reinstated the breathalysers also known as alcoblow, on the Kenyan roads came into force.
