Haki Africa executive director Hussein Khalid. He said President Uhuru Kenyatta should disband NTSA. [Photo/hrw.org]
The rights group, Haki Africa has asked President Uhuru Kenyatta to disband the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) over the recent accidents in the country.
Haki Africa executive director Hussein Khalid said at least 300 lives have been lost in December 2017 alone and NTSA needs to take responsibility.
During the Salgaa accident, Mr Khalid said NTSA failed to take responsibility but instead banned night travel which has affected the transport industry.
Mr Khalid in an open letter to President Uhuru on Thursday said the authority should be blamed for the loss of lives adding that innocent Kenyans and the transport companies should not pay for failures by NTSA.
He said it is the duty of NTSA to take steps such as establishing roadblocks and speed bumps, especially at hot spots, to improve safety.
“After the accident at Salgaa where over 36 lives were lost, NTSA simply woke up the next morning and foolishly resorted to banning night travel by transport companies.”
“While most of these accidents were caused by human error, it is worth noting that NTSA is established primarily to reduce these human errors. What NTSA is engaging in is finger-pointing and blame games yet it is responsible for road safety,” he said.
The lobby noted that the night travel ban has led to the bus companies losing millions of shillings as they had to cancel tickets issued for night trips
Mr Khalid said the bus companies have now taken advantage of the situation and doubled or tripled fares which have affected those traveling back to other towns following the festive season and also those going back to school.