The Chairman of the Transport and Infrastructure Committee of the National Assembly George Kariuki has called for enhanced penalties for traffic offenders as a way of curbing the high number of accidents in the country.
According to the chairman, although the move may be deemed to be punitive, it would restore sanity and discipline on Kenyan roads.
He said the country loses an average of 5,000 people annually to road accidents, a figure he said was alarmingly high.
“In Kenya, whenever fines are enhanced people think that the government is unfair to them. But when fines are enhanced, things will work for the good of every Kenyan because people will somehow behave,” he said.
Kariuki who is also the Ndia legislator, attributed some of the accidents to ignorance by motorists, noting that many drivers were blatantly disregarding traffic rules.
He also warned against common causes of accidents, including drunk driving, speeding and the use of unroadworthy vehicles, noting that many crashes were the result of deliberate choices.
And while urging Kenyans to be more careful on the roads, Kariuki called for immediate behaviour change by motorists to help curb the number of accidents.
“When we say do not overspeed, please avoid overspeeding because the uncomfortable truth is that some of these accidents are choices. I want to encourage us to change our attitudes and behaviour on the road. Know that you are not the only road user; there are other people who are using the road and their lives as well as yours matter,” he said.
Kariuki spoke at the Outspan Hospital in Nyeri on Thursday after visiting Catherine Wambugu, a renowned agribusiness entrepreneur and brand ambassador for the Kenyan-based Wambugu Apples.
Ms Wambugu was hospitalised at the facility on January 19 following a grisly road accident on Nyeri-Nyahururu highway which claimed the lives of two of her employees.
The MP stressed that road deaths were not just statistics but tragedies that left families grieving.
He said that through the parliamentary committee, he would push for enhanced budgetary allocation to support recarpeting of dilapidated roads across the country.
Additionally, Kariuki said that the committee would also be tabling a proposal for the installation of digital surveillance cameras on major highways to transmit real-time data on rogue motorists, a move he said was aimed at curbing impunity and strengthening the enforcement of traffic regulations.
“We want to engage a good gear and make sure that every traffic offender is apprehended and punished because this is the only way we are going to reduce these numbers,” he said.
“I will be meeting with the Cabinet Secretary for Roads and Transport Davis Chirchir and we will see how we can revamp the enforcement of the rules especially through National Transport and Safety Authority and the Ministry of Interior. We are going to make sure that everybody is engaged and everybody does what they are supposed to do,” he added.
As of December 2025, the country had recorded a 3.4 per cent increase in the number of road fatalities. A report by the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) showed that the deaths stood at 4,458 compared to 4,311 deaths recorded in 2024. Motorcyclists’ deaths increased by 8.8 per cent from 1,055 in 2024 to 1,148 in 2025.
According to the report, pedestrians accounted for the highest number of casualties at 1,685 deaths.
Fatalities of pillion passengers rose by 15.2 per cent from 375 in 2024 to 432 last year.
During the year, the number of drivers who lost their lives rose by 8.9 per cent to 403 from 371 in 2024 while there was an 8.4 per cent decline in the number of passenger deaths recorded from 789 to 723.
The authority noted that the main offences included absent or malfunctioning speed governors, drunk driving, driving an unroadworthy vehicle, ferrying excess passengers, flouting insurance requirements and driving without a road service licence.
By Wangari Mwangi and Samuel Maina
