The government is partnering with Japan in a new initiative aimed at curbing road accidents and improving the reporting of road accidents in the country.
Traffic police officers in Kenya are undergoing fresh training from officers attached to the Tokyo Metropolitan Police. This project seeks to introduce a digital system used in reporting road accidents in Kenya.
This comes at a time when Kenya is rapidly undergoing urbanization, with more and more cars joining Kenya’s busy roads, hence the need for a more advanced system of collecting data on road accidents.
Kenya’s plan is informed by a system used effectively in Tokyo, one of the busiest cities in the world. Kenya’s Principal Secretary at the Interior Ministry, Mr. Raymond Omollo, stated that Japan has effectively controlled traffic and enhanced road safety using correct information.
This system, dubbed Kenya–Japan Safe System Approach to Road Traffic Accidents, involves collaboration between Kenya’s National Police Service, the National Transport and Safety Authority, and JICA.
In conjunction with this, police officers are being trained on how to effectively use digital technology in collecting data on accidents and analyzing it. Once it is up and running, it should be able to identify trouble hotspots on the roads and what causes the crashes before any action is taken.
For example, in case there has been an increase in head-on collisions on a particular road, the government should zero in on that particular road and work towards making the necessary improvements.
The method has already borne some fruit in the United States and Sweden, where accident rates have been reduced. This comes at a time when NTSA and the authorities announced their plans for the introduction of unique IDs for boda boda riders, which will be rolled out starting in Nairobi.
In recent times, road accidents have been claiming many lives in the country, and the government hopes that with the digital system and their collaboration with Japan, things will be improved significantly.
