The government has urged motorists to use roadworthy vehicles so as to ensure sanity in major highways in the country.
It states that the vehicles will assure travellers of safe journeys that out of unexpected breakdowns, eradicate confusion, accidents as well as assure passengers of confidence.
The traffic police department and the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) said that having a roadworthy vehicle is for the benefit of all road users.
The both department on Wednesday conducted a joint inspection exercise at Kwa Mathore area in Lari sub county along the Nairobi Nakuru highway.
They were checking on the motorists who have been flouting the Traffic Law Board (TLB) licenses, on unroadworthy vehicles, drunkards among the public service vehicles (PSV) drivers.
NTSA enforcement officer Andrew Gichuhi also revealed that they were also checking on PSV licenses certificates, overloading among PSVs vehicles, driving licenses and even the speed governors mounted on the PSV vehicles.
Gichuhi said this was a normal exercise aimed at ensuring that motorists were aware of the traffic act and that have indeed adhered to them.
Lari deputy base commander Jacqueline King’oo said motorists who disregards the law always diverts to rural roads to escape being nabbed.
“Whenever an important exercise like this is being conducted, many motorists who feels that they will be nabbed, they always uses rural roads so as to avoid the exercise section” she said.
However, many road users who uses highway were left walking for long distances and for hours, since some PSV operators stopped from working to wait for the officers to close the exercise.
“I normally work at a curio shop at Rukuma area and I live about 5 km from that place and normally pass at the place where the roadblock was mounted. I had to walk all through since there were no PSV along the section” said Tabitha Wanjiku.
A lot of vehicles were also using a section of Mau Mau road connects the highway at Nyambare and passes to Gitithia, Escarpment, Kabunge to Maai Mahiu or a motorists can divert at Matathia to join the Nairobi Nakuru highway at Kimende.
Some passengers raised concern over the motorist’s act of avoiding inspection saying the PSV’s had wasted their time.
“These PSV operators only wants to see their vehicles are moving and making a lot of money quickly but they fail to meet the other regulations. This is the reason they do not want to face the law enforcers” Martha Njoki, a trader who commutes from Rukuma trading center Kimende town daily said.
Njoki urged the police to be tight on the traffic rules since they will reduce cases of accidents including incompetent drivers on the roads.
“Some accident’s can be avoided if some vehicles are not on the roads, these operations need to be conducted at all times” she said.
While others blamed the police and the NTSA for conducting impromptu operations, ending up in inconveniencing the road users.
