If you’ve been following the news, you might have witnessed the alarming spike in road accidents in Kenya. In response, Sustainable Mobility Africa (SUMO), in partnership with the Global Youth Coalition for Road Safety, set up a workshop to help mitigate the issues at the Barabara Plaza Auditorium at JKIA, Nairobi, Kenya.
The workshop brought together key stakeholders in road safety in Kenya, including engineers, policymakers, law enforcement officials, academia, transport operators, and various civil society organizations, to find sustainable issues.
The workshop aimed to address Kenya’s growing road safety challenges by taking an interesting approach—a tech-allied methodology that involves streamlining road safety data management and sharing between multi-sectoral agencies, positively impacting crash-reporting accuracy while adhering to NRSA’s (National Road Safety Authority) action plan (2024 – 2028) and specifically “Priority—8 (data enhancement and multi-sectoral coordination).”
During her presentation, the Director of Safety and Planning, KENHA, Eng. Monica Abonyo revealed that road traffic accidents contributed to 4,386 deaths in 2023, which was quite worrisome compared to the global pandemic fatalities in Kenya (2020 – 2023 was 4,600) for two years.
Dr. Andrew Kiplagat, the Director of Road Safety at NTSA(National Transport and Safety Authority), added that the country experienced a 14% (1,281) increase in fatalities as of September 2024, affecting pedestrians.
Dr. Kiplagat emphasized the need for multi-sectoral collaborations and data-driven solutions. With their qualified and quantifiable nature, these solutions are crucial in curbing road accidents in Kenya. This focus on collaboration and data-driven approaches was a key theme of the workshop.
Eng. Mary Abungo, Program Director of “Connect The Dots Save a Life” and the Founder of Sustainable Mobility Africa (SUMO), stated that this project, with the help of its partners, noticed inconsistencies in road safety data management and collaboration between multi-sectoral agencies in Kenya.
Through extensive research, the project has found solutions that will positively impact road safety outcomes by enhancing collaboration, developing effective policies, and establishing an effective road safety management structure.
