 Good morning, what a wonderful morning to have you my dear audience to this show Why in the morning? My name is Grace Mainghi standing in for Valentine and of course this is your daily show that's coming up at Y254 and today we have a show lined up for you and I'm excited about this show in particular because we are going to be talking about matters safety road safety and with me in studio I have a doctor Duncan Kapokong who is the deputy director road safety programs and public education thank you so much doctorie for making time for us. Karee Boussana to the studio. Just just just to start off the show I will ask you to kindly introduce yourself to our audience right of course touch on what's the mandate of NTSC in terms of road safety. Thank you so much. Thank you so much Grace Mainghi for inviting me to this show. My name is Duncan Kapokong. Dr. Duncan Kapokong works with the National Transport and Safety Authority as the deputy director in church of road safety programs and education and I think NTSC is fairly a well-known name in this country for one reason or the other one but just for your viewers to get to know about this is that NTSC is a government agency and it's a government agency established through an act of parliament sometimes back around 2012-2013 and we've been basically in existence since then after having been established by that act of parliament. Our role really is if I put it broadly is that we are the lead agency on matters road safety. Lead agency means that we bring so many other stakeholders onto the board and working towards improving matters road safety and road transport in this in this country, Kenya. Now just briefly part of the work we do so that Kenyans get to know is that we register motor vehicles in this country because we are basically the registrar of motor vehicles keeping the list and the registry of motor vehicles in this country so we provide those number plates we get to know many vehicles in the country that kind of thing. We check also the issues with motor vehicle inspection ensuring that vehicles in the country are inspected especially in currently working with what you call the PSV those are the Matatus and the AV commercial vehicles those are the lorries and the pickups and the rest and then three is that we do a lot on matters road safety of course I've talked about the motor vehicle inspection being part of it but we advise the national government on matters touching on road transport and road safety from a policy perspective so that they come up with the right policies for that matter informed because we are the experts on that. We work on matters road safety strategies including this public education including such a program. We also work part and parcel of our work is that all the matters touching on the driver and here you are talking about having the curriculum for driver training testing and licensing is something we spearhead together it takes all that so that we have a standardized best curriculum for this country for training you and me and many other Kenyans and indeed even not Kenyans to ensure that they are better drivers then we of course oversee the whole aspect around driver training testing and licensing and we license the driving schools and coordinate so many aspects on matters road safety so when you talk about one of our roles is to coordinate actors on road safety including the media houses like yourselves including the PSV sector and NGOs the development partners basically is whole matters touching on road safety so that's our role as NTSA and NTSA works with many partners and the overall objective and part and parcel of our mission is to ensure that over time we do have improved road safety in this Republic of Kenyans. Thank you so much for bringing that light to what NTSA does because a lot of people out there when they hear NTSA they just hear NTSA and then you hear KUSHIKOA you know the common one inch from the perspective of the common one inch is that when our common one inch hears NTSA so you use the layman's language which is KNTSA those are the things that NTSA is particularly associated with but today's focus of this discussion I would want us to talk about to Salama Barabarani why do you think that death tolls are increasing every day on our roads particularly before you answer me particularly we have a rising number in the country of death tolls pertaining to road accidents and all that but it's prone to their counties that are very notorious that is Nairobi Nakuru, Kisumu, Kericho why do we have those rising death tolls? Yes Grace now matters when you talk about crashes indeed road traffic it is we've noted the numbers are high and the distribution are as per what you've said we do have some other counties with high number of road traffic deaths and injuries and crashes as compared to others you also do have some sudden roads which have more deaths than others so the reason being that a crash does not happen in where there is no vehicle or where so for example if you do not have a vehicle as a matter of fact there'll be no road fatality for that case if there'll be no road there's no so three things usually have to interact for a crash to happen and that is a vehicle has to be there a road user human being me and you and the road so when those things conflict in a particular way then the road usually is usually the one who is more vulnerable among is the two among is the three so in the long run they suffer an injury and if the injury is severe that's when a dead fatality fatality happens so those those three parameters you call them a triad have to happen so that a crash happens so what is happening in bigger areas so rather that the particular counties you mentioned is that we have high number of vehicles for example in the city of Nairobi or the Nairobi city county we do have many roads and we have also high number of population that is the road users so those conflict one with the other on the roads and the numbers are high but we are not saying that is the right thing to happen road traffic crashes are preventable and indeed we do have other parts of this country and indeed even parts of the world whereby they may have similar number of vehicles and number of cars a number of vehicles and number of roads or even population but they still have low so we do have some Nairobi for example Nakuru and we have major highways on some of those roads and that's why we have those number of fatalities then I would also say that why we've also not the increasing number of that is because there has been an increase on number of vehicles especially the border borders if increased and that has been and I can say an emerging challenge an emerging challenge meaning that you've noted that border borders have a special challenge like the riders are not trained they have not majority of them up to six seventy percent and this is what you are working with many people and partners to push this particular group to go to driving soon to be trained riding soon to know how to ride and become better road users so that's what's happening and that informed the all aspect about the EU Salama program which is currently running and supported by the European Union and the government of Kenya and we want to drive the agenda of road safety with the expectation in the long run is that we reduce this number of fatalities and currently we're working with some of those counties which we mentioned about six and pilot areas but that doesn't mean that you're not doing anything elsewhere we are doing a lot across the country as a matter of fact even this program you're having currently spills over into the youth across the country and so that we become better road users so I'm grace to bring a point home is that indeed the numbers are going and we always say one life loss is one too many it's unacceptable I could attack you don't go to quenna quenna liner if you view your class this that's every day a panel and the truth of the matter is your viewership are the ones who are affected by this problem I'm told that your viewership is of the younger generations and this is where the catch is and from a global perspective 15 to 29 year old the number one killer is road traffic injury in the world beating more than HIV beating more than coffee than many others so this is something you'd want us to address and I'm happy to be here to talk day in and out around this problem all throughout the week so that we have better you audience than you'd be addressing you're sure tomorrow the same audience we talked to today still there tomorrow thank you if I can pick something from what you've said yes you said that you are doing usalama Barabarani as an initiative yes will do you be kind enough to expound more on what exactly yes yes so it touches a number of areas one I'll start with what you're currently doing for example what you're doing is to increase the level of awareness and education levels among us road users in this country whereby we want road users to understand matters road safety and not just understand but shift their behavior from just not having the knowledge but having a behavioral change to have better road use and that is number one number two is that we are working together with the county governments of those particular counties to see how we can work on what you call count transfer and safety committee for purposes of improving road safety remember road safety is not a government functions alone neither is it an NTSA functional on it is everyone's responsibility including county government national government and I always say this is an area everyone has to play a role for purposes of sustainability so that is one of the areas supporting the county government we work also to improve on matters touching on on on on and save roads in terms of the so-called black spots by the engineering aspect remember there are times I've been identified to know so we want to identify all these black spots and what are the treatments we call it from a road safety treatment what are the mitigation measures what are we going to do to make a road which has classically been unsafe to become safe from engineering point of view and then the all aspect of course of campus building areas within NTSA and many areas so that we have better understanding and better ways of managing this emerging problem yes who can we say yes yes I well I'll put it this way the people if I'll start from a statistical point of view that if you check our statistics last year the number of road users who get killed more have pedestrians rather our motorcycle motorcycles both the billion passenger the billion passenger is the passenger of a motorcycle and the rider like last year we talking about up to 40% of the deaths are caused by a motorcycle then closely followed by a pedestrian which around 34% so we are talking about 70 plus percent being the so-called the vulnerable users that is the motorcycle and the motorcycle rider plus is or a passenger and the pedestrians so those are the people who have killed more does not mean that the word notorious is that because they are caused by other vehicles as well we've noted that increase border border because of the increasing number of border border in this country and and and and coupled with a number of issues non-training they're bad behavior in the road not putting on a helmet while riding both the passenger overloading at times you see up to six seven you know human beings on that two three meter type of vehicle that is the motorcycle and in case a crash a present you have massive remember when you're always on a border border the point of contact or impact in case of a crash is your body unlike for a vehicle because the other one is more protective but nonetheless those are the the areas which you've noted that they have high number of fatalities and then and also the private vehicles we've seen me and you have increasingly becoming more careless on the road in terms of speeding bring driving tailgating overtaking dangerously driving for so long as so that you get fatigued and those are some of the challenges you're talking about so but nevertheless we'll be working and I rally everyone would want all of us to rally on this particular course so that we work to what's included matters I would really want to ask you what NTSA is doing to have the border border the rise of border border cases yes but let me push your focus to something that I saw happening just the other day I saw border border riders registering they were being told to give a hundred buck to register the border borders and the stage they work they work at like you know if I work at let's say I am in town CBD and my station or my stage is in a trip you register you pay a hundred shillings is that an initiative one of the initiatives that no no no the initiative we actually conducting the registration but ours is that we don't do that by payment as you talked about because we believe that is not the type the right approach I I love to get details around that but likely those are the the so-called the border border stations or otherwise circles which they operate differently for their own but what you're doing is a government and this one you are working with the Ministry of Interior the Ngao structures right from a national level all the way to the to the assistant chief in every sub-location is that we are registering these people and we put a platform where but there is the registration why we are being it is because one we need get to know how many border borders do you have in this country because some are fallen aside some are coming into the game and so that you understand the the the in terms of quantities number two is to know where exactly they are number three is you are trying to work towards having these groups put into what you call circles and companies of a minimum of hundred the whole idea here is to ensure that we work towards self-regulation in this sector self-regulation means that it cannot be and it will never happen whereby government will be a police in this sector 24-7 we want to establish a mechanism among us each of these groups knowing that they exist in buddhalangi for example or in mandera how many they are and then we establish also the level of their license ship or put it the other way around whether they have been trained and licensed so much so that if we get to know that in in machakos county for example we have 35 000 motorcycle riders and 32 say 20 000 have not been trained then we work towards putting them into a training regime because we have a program we're working with ny's and other stakeholders and other drivers so that we train them to become better riders but whatever was happening you mentioned is that's what ours is going on is it's actually an ongoing exercise we've registered a number of them and now working towards analyzing those statistics for purposes of understanding those the issues I talked about where they are the distribution the locations where they are whether they've been trained what can we do to what's working them and then further in understanding that we can even go and capacity build them you know that you are dealing with y24 circle in in in kitui county with a membership of 50 000 riders and that provides a platform whereby we can engage formally uh and and capacity build them on several areas including talking to them like we are talking now so that's the initiative which is ongoing and we believe and we think that is how we're going to move forward as we talk even to them through such platforms like the ones you provided today in the morning so it is safe to say we still have some way to go when it comes to buddha buddha yes yes we do have a way forward indeed there was an action plan around the same so there's a whole way forward we are quite cognizant of the fact that this is an area which has been handled it cannot be the issue is that for a very long time nothing much has been done but we have action on the same and it's not just on safety issues by the way if you if you hear that um in this country um if you read anything criminal or crime for that matter you realize that the investigative agencies will tell you that a buddha buddha plays one role rather than whether it's carrying an arm whether it's carrying illicit alcohol whether it is you know anything some whatever it is so there's some um attendance of this sector that's why government we are quite clear that we need to have this sector not uh uh at our chests so to speak so that we work towards improving their life it's not about chasing them and whatever it is about embracing and letting them improve on their their capacities right from how they behave on the road how they build their their circles their entrepreneurial skills and working towards a safe sector in a regulated manner um let's just shift our area of focus a bit to this this vulnerable i'm calling them vulnerable yes a category of people uh the school school buses and schools transportation we have seen crashes involving school buses and issues around it what is what is ntsc doing we know you you you put in place this uh yellow buses and all that is that enough what are you doing correct yes um yeah now that is an issue which i know and just to bring that point home for your viewers is that for some of us who are parents at this particular time schools are closing for a short term period uh about four five days and you'll be seeing a lot of movements within the country and it's our hope and prayer that um the safety on our roads has to move along yes indeed school children are classified as as rather children for that matter are classified as vulnerable the vulnerability is because of some of the areas we call them shortcomes not really shortcomes but because of of of their nature issues to do that their their attention is quite poor uh not enough the judgment of speed or distances is a bit low their heights basically from anatomically or the way they are is that they cannot see i mean they are they cannot they may not be seen that's why at times you see parents even reversing on their children because even if they check the side mirrors they can't see but the child is right behind you've seen this unfortunate case happen among his others so we recon and recognize and and and that this team or this cohort is special and vulnerable and being special and vulnerable one of the places we target as uh as in their safety is the schools uh the the majority of children in this country spend in excess about eight to about about eight hours or so in schools depending on which level of grade you are in or class you are in so uh school safety is very important very paramount and school safety around two areas which we're going to talk about briefly one is that we reckon that their children who walk to school come out for lunch at in the afternoon they go back and they come back in the evening so making four trips to school and and and and and and competing with the traffic as they go and back in school uh is a potential area of conflict and that conflict they are of conflicted vehicles but the border included then there's an likelihood of the injury of the vulnerable organism what does that mean it means that we need to improve our transportation of children from and to schools whether you're walking or you're using a school bus majority of kenyans of course do work to schools uh in excess of 90 but you've also noted an increase of vehicles going to schools uh schools providing vehicles now a programs which you are currently working on and would encourage even kbc to do this and many other stations and many other kenyans for that matter is the very simple um non-expensive inexpensive intervention we call it helping children cross the road and you see children uh the school is on the other side there's a road here of even if it is a single lane or double or at times even multi-lane like some of them highways in the country we need just kenyans to stop let the children cross when you see a mush we call them a traffic marshal or a guard for that matter to help the children by raising stop sign you come to stop let the children take their very short time actually not running it hardly takes less than five minutes to help children cross not even one minute for that matter and these children be safe when they are going to school and back and you can be sure they're going to go back it's quite unfortunate that at times and then two is the school transport which you mentioned about we've done the pain and we're working towards having even the issues because we've seen in the recent past school children are crammed into a space of um if it's a space of 14 we've been able in the past able to count in excess of 45 out of that what does that mean that is cramped it's actually even a child abuse so to speak so those are some of the things we are working around but as you said road safety is not a government agenda alone it's everyone and that's why we are imploring upon the school communities working with the minister of education and other stakeholders to drive the agenda and we have the Tuvuke Salama project we are currently working with one of our partners Vivo Energy and bringing other stakeholders for purposes of improving road safety for children when they're going to and coming out of schools and considering that they are vulnerable Kenyans we have seen NTSA do a partnership with police enforcement programs and all that yes how would you explain your relationship with the police how do you do police national Kenya national police service is the enforcement arm of government as per the constitution of Kenya and anything law witness enforcement is the national police services do part and parcel of our work as the regulator in this field is to provide support to the national police service information or otherwise or data or otherwise so that as they enforce they ensure that it's data driven and research driven or other evidence based so what does that mean we work with the national police service there are partners and we work at times and most of the time we have what you call joint operations whereby you want to check a vehicle in terms of the regulatory requirements including whether vehicle has a license whether the drivers have valid license whether the vehicle has a certificate of inspection motor vehicle inspection certificate whether they're operating the right to some more so we do have those joint operations and we work with them very closely and they do quite a number of work around the same it's just that Kenyans at times we need to appreciate that you don't need to be chased around by the police we need to be more responsible and police will will will you want them even to be out of the roads for that matter in terms of because we have we have better behaviors on the road so yes so in the past yes yes Grace that you have seen you know there is a way that someone is used to doing things even at home at your house there's a way you used to do it something and there's a way you prepare for event ceremonies and one of the particular things that we have taken note of particularly is that NTSA does a lot of campaigning during festivities during Christmas Easter and all that but lately we are seeing a lot of campaigning going around and it's it's a no festive season is it a change of strategy yes yes yes yes you're right I'm I'm Grace this is the all direction we are moving into and and and we look forward to partnering with every other part including the the fourth state um we have to have this as uh in a sustainable manner done throughout uh and not just on those festivities why we are doing that time is because those are the high risk seasons remember December naturally rather not traditionally have been associated with all number of crashes on have been elevated and many other holidays because of this increased movement but this activity going to do is going to be um all throughout the phases of the year and we are not going to we are going to work with everyone so yes so that is the direction you're moving into um let me ask a particular question that I've been wanting to ask we have this class of people we call pedestrians sometimes they're just walking by the road and fatalities happen and they're taken by the road how can they protect themselves because you know someone is walking they're just taking the stroll or someone was just walking to their work they weren't particularly inside the road or you know in common one one-inches language but they happen to be um they happen to get into an accident how can they protect themselves yes I'll I'll I'll put it this way that um the sustainability of that pedestrian is from number of areas I'll start first from a behavioral aspect and not just for the pedestrian because a pedestrian another pedestrian cannot kill another pedestrian that's one thing you need to do even if you knock yourself one moving in the opposite direction that naturally nothing happens a pedestrian is killed by a vehicle moving at speed or a motorcycle and whether and could be killed when they are crossing the road or at times away from the road you're buying your sugarcane and eating then a vehicle comes by so the sustainability of pedestrian safety is on number of areas one is behavioral on both the pedestrian yourself and the road the vehicle the vehicle and I say the vehicle I'm in the rider so to start with on the pedestrian pedestrians you need to be careful remember that you are extremely very vulnerable being hit at as little as 30 40 kilometers per hour is a potential death so at times people think that it's the huge speeds of hundreds plus which kill pedestrians actually is that little because the impact on the body is you are actually directly on your flesh whether it's in your chest on your pelvis or your your head or your legs so that's why pedestrians remain extremely very vulnerable because of the openness now so the behavior is ensure you always um if they are pedestrian facilities to use use them here we're talking food bridges I've just come from another studio and to be told one of the viewers mentioned about some food breach in Bagadi which is not used people walk and yet these are very beautiful friendly modern food breach which has been set up by one of the road agencies but it's not used now so walk using the pedestrian facilities which are available whether it is the food bridge in some cases under bridge in some cases the pedestrian walkways in some cases even the the zebra crossing so that's when you use that number one two is that you be visible at times at night you will find people doing a joke and they are dark so all of a sudden and that's why at times there's that provision in some cases even a single belt of a reflective material would always save you at times and then three is that as much as possible don't cross the word jay walking you know carelessly five is that um there's a pedestrian you've seen pedestrians killed because they drink and walk and cross as a highway like thicker road so drinking of course impairs your performance on the road as a pedestrian so that is one but that's how the pedestrian needs to save themselves use those facilities two is for this other person speeding and and many others but as government also is that we want to work towards improving and increasing and enhancing the facilities of the pedestrian yes i have been told we're short of time but i would want to ask a question a pressing question that i would want you to answer in a very in a in a 90 seconds so then we wind up um i want to pick a question from one of the things you've said about pedestrians using foot bridges yes safety in those foot bridges has been one of the major issues why pedestrians have been reluctant to use that correct does that fall on your docket or on the police in just a short time in just a minute it falls on virtually everyone i'll say the fact that they are dirty they are people who are making it dirty or unsafe that is one aspect of the thieves the thieves of course that is something which you're working with the national police service to ensure that and also including the county governments who were like in aerobics to ensure that the safety there but also modern foot bridges if you see they are more open they are lit so that it discourages the same but we also need to get those reports of some of those areas so that you tell the police to improve the safety of those uh the security aspect around the same you had mentioned you had talked about um usalama barabadan correct what what is its implementation strategy and how is it going to be of benefit to the user the benefit the overall benefit of this is improvement of road safety that's what i can say simply speaking but one of the things of course is that we are working towards improving the behavior of the road user whether whichever road user you're talking about and and also improving the road infrastructure facilities in terms of treatment of the black spots which i had mentioned before so those are the potential benefits of this particular program but as i said this is a short term one year two years but we do have we need to have these things sustainable manner and the overall thing is that road safety is everybody's responsibility it's your responsibility grace and responsibility of everyone so let's play that role and and i'm not letting it that it's just a government agenda or a government where you know function as um as your parting shorts i would want you to tell us how can we all share in the responsibility of keeping our road safe how can the viewers how can the viewers help and to keep the road safe as you wind up yes um i'm now speaking to the viewers that as Kenyans uh at any one point you are a road user as a matter of fact every time you cut out of your bed you are a road user because you'll be working on the road as you go to school as you go to work so safety has to move from being a government function from being the other person's function to your function or to your responsibility push safety to become your responsibility and if all of us choose to become on the safe side then we do not need even NTSF of that matter we'll close shop why i'm saying so is that um if you work if you are a pedestrian do you do the right thing if you are a passenger you make sure that you report in case of a crash in case in case of a behavior which you find it not wanting speeding driving dangerously if you are a driver don't bring a driver many other things we've always talked about so it's important that all of us to abide by the laws and and with that case we'll have the reduced number of road traffic crashes in this country and and we'll be far safe and and and and that is my my my message to the viewers of Y-20 form especially you are special listeners and viewers of the youth population the future of this country this country depends on you let's not keep on killing ourselves on the road because of something which is totally and purely preventable actually don't use it's not an accident it is something which is purely preventable so that is my message to your viewers thank you so much for this time for us thank you for being here dear viewer you have heard it from Dr Duncan Kibogong as the deputy director safety programs and public education thank you so much for tuning in and listening as you have gotten it from him it is my mandate it is your mandate to keep our roads safe have a good evening i have a good day sorry and let's meet tomorrow here at same time god bless you