Kikuyu children’s officer, Harriet Kihara has asked Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) supporting school-going children to consider training them on road safety.
Kihara said NGOs should work in collaboration with school administrations and the traffic police department to impart road safety skills to children who have become frequent victims of road carnage in the area.
She expressed the need for NGOs in collaboration with the police traffic department to roll out education programs in schools aimed at enlightening schoolchildren on basic traffic rules.
"Several cases of road accidents involving children are associated with irresponsible Bodaboda operators. The children become victims because they unknowingly break traffic rules. They need to be equipped with road safety skills because parents and teachers cannot be always there to help them," she said.
Kihara observed that with rapid growth of transport sector in Kikuyu town, there is need for such intervention as a way of controlling frequent loses of young life to road carnage.
Speaking on Wednesday, Kihara cautioned Bodaboda operators hired to take children to school against overloading, overspeeding and failing to provide children with helmets.
"Exposing them to direct wind could make them contract ailments such as pneumonia," she added.
Kihara also advised parents and guardians to ensure children are always escorted by responsible people saying the current practice by some parents to let their young ones go to school by themselves exposes them risks of traffic accidents and defilement.