Alarm as crashes kill, maim learners on Kenyan roads

Concerns continue to spike as Kenyan roads prove to be unsafe for school-going students as scores have been left injured and others left dead in fatal accidents.

Following the recent incident where an Easy Coach bus overturned in Kisumu County, killing a student from Chavakali Boys High School, Citizen Digital has observed that over 20 students have died and 115 injured in road accidents from April 2023. This number is what has been reported in the media. 

As we list the trail of the accidents from May 2024 to April 2023, it is important to note that this is just a small fraction of the recorded number of deaths witnessed on Kenyan roads over the same period.

The Chavakali Boys incident follows another one where a Moi University bus rolled into a ditch on March 27, 2024, which saw 65 students narrowly escaping death.

Moi University was even forced to suspend all academic trips until further notice.

However, a week before the incident on March 18, a grisly accident took the lives of 11 students and seriously injured 21 students from Kenyatta University.

The shocking incident occurred in the Maungu area near Voi on the Nairobi-Mombasa highway when the college bus collided with a truck. The students were heading to Mombasa for an academic trip.

42 injured students were admitted to various hospitals near the scene.

On March 16, a student from Kapsabet Boys High School and a teacher were victims of another accident after their bus rolled after it lost control while negotiating a sharp corner and landed at the bottom of a steep slope along the Kabarnet-Marigat highway in Baringo County.

On January 10, 3 students suffered fractures after the van they had boarded heading from Kisumu to Nairobi rammed head-on into the incoming matatu.

The unfortunate trail was also present in 2023. On October 6, a Form Two student at Bumala Anglican Church (AC) Secondary School was hit by a trailer at Rakite area along the Kisumu-Busia highway.

Another student was among three people who were left dead on July 4 after they were hit by a high-speeding truck while travelling on a motorcycle along Kitale- Eldoret highway.

Six Mbihi Girls' School students also met their unfortunate deaths on April 18 on the Nakuru-Nairobi highway after the matatu driver reportedly collided with an oncoming lorry headed in the opposite direction as he tried to overtake.

With the aforementioned incidents, questions have been floated seeking to identify the root of the horror on Kenyan roads that has now proven not to spare students.

Transport Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen on April 19, 2023 issued stringent measures to observe road safety after a spike in road accidents.

"On the issue of transportation for school children, it is prudent to enhance safety especially now that the schools are closing and our children are travelling home," he said during a press address.

He directed that school transportation shall not be allowed to operate between 10.00 pm and 5.00 pm and all students must be allocated seats with functional seat belts.

The CS further directed that all school vans and buses that are unroadworthy should be effectively kept off the roads while pledging to have all speed limit vendors will be interrogated to ensure that they install approved gadgets.

He also tasked the Kenya National Highways Authority (KeNHA), Kenya Urban Road Authority (KURA) and the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) to work expeditiously to run audits that would aid in blackspot management.

The exercise was to include the installation of signage, reflectors, and street lighting within 30 days.

Questions now abound on whether motorists, despite vigilance by relevant authorities, are deliberately ignoring the set regulations while risking the lives of students.