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Speed enforcement camera installed by NTSA on the Thika Superhighway. [File, Standard]
Oftentimes, it is difficult to understand what informs some government decisions. It appears decisions are made by a bunch of fellows who might have consumed something illegal or simply people who have become so detached from realities on the ground that common sense no longer features in their vocabulary.
And it’s not even the big things; it starts with mundane decisions that nevertheless have a huge impact on the lives of ordinary Kenyans. Take Thika Superhighway, for instance. The speed cameras introduced, are in principle, a good thing. The fact they are linked to vehicle registration and fines are paid directly to the government means the traffic officers who were growing fat off the road will have to invent new ways of making money (and that, they will).
The speed cameras have the potential of instilling discipline on our roads. But someone had to spoil a perfectly good idea. There is a section of the highway where the brains at the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA), in their wisdom —or lack thereof— have seen it fit to introduce a speed limit of 50km per hour. This stretch has a thriving funeral home where visitors park haphazardly and pedestrians have developed the habit of dashing across a multi-lane highway. As expected, accidents occur here regularly.
