By Agnetta Okwemba
Mombasa County government has joined hands with different organizations to modernize and give a facelift to its road systems.
Speaking during the marking of World Day of Remembrance 2024, the County Executive Committee Member in charge of Roads Daniel Manyala announced that the county together with an organization from Japan is looking to install an Intelligence Transport System (ITS) in about 21 corners of Mombasa that will help in curbing accidents.
It is an advanced way of traffic management through technological features such as sensors, and advanced safety systems that can alert drivers of possible dangers as well as manage highways through speed control.
“We recently passed the transport policy that is to protect and deal with the lawbreakers as we plan on installing modern traffic lights,” said Manyala.
This follows data by the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) on pedestrian accidents being more than those of motorists at 1,044 in 2023 and 1,177 in 2024.
NTSA records its data quarterly a year.
Till October of 2024, they have recorded 4,047 fatalities compared to 4,300 in the same period in 2023.
An analysis of this data by NTSA brings out road designs as a major contributor to these cases.
Coast region’s NTSA Deputy Regional Manager John Parteroi acknowledged this claim, pointing out that together with the County and Bloomberg, they have done research on the accidents and plans are underway to have pedestrian walkways and cycling lanes as a way of having more space for all road users to reduce accidents.
“This year we are commemorating this day differently by sensitizing on the importance of maintaining speed and being mindful of other road users,” said Parteroi.
An organization by the name Bloomberg Initiative Philanthropists for Global Road Safety is a partner to the Mombasa County government to help in policy-making, road designing, and training of police and NTSA officers.
“It is important to re-design our roads since most of our roads are only meant for car users. We want to have the roads accommodative to pedestrians too,” said Kevin Ismail, Bloomberg’s coordinator.
Explaining that even a car user is a pedestrian at one point, Kevin said that this development will help to reduce the number of pedestrian cases recorded by NTSA.
Bloomberg is looking to have a Mass Media Campaign in December to create awareness of speeding and the dangers of speeding. Kevin explained that they want people to understand that speeding is a major cause of accidents in our roads.
Mombasa County marked this day by having a pedestrian crossing painting at Nyali School using the colors: White, green, blue, yellow, and red. The use of these colors is a plan they want to start implementing to have pedestrian crossing more visible to road users as well as have attractive colors to entice the school-going children to make use of it.
Other developments to be done by the County include having modernized traffic lights, installation of cameras on the streets, and increasing pedestrian crossing on roads.
Road users have been urged to uphold safety at all times as we go into the festive season.
