Insensitively mute: Chirchir silent as Kenyans die on roads

As Kenya’s highways turn into pathways to hell, where more than 100 have died in horror crashes, citizens are wondering where the Cabinet Secretary for Transport and Roads, Davis Chirchir, is.

The cacophony of screams from accidents victims, the wailing of the maimed, and cries of relatives mourning their dead have not roused a response from the mandarins at the ministry headquarters to console and explain to Kenyans why their highways have become death traps.

Yesterday, as some Cabinet secretaries posted their condolences to the affected families following the death of 26 people in a Kisumu bus accident, Chirchir was conspicuous in his silence.

The outrage from scandalised Kenyans about the rate at which motorists and passengers are dying on Kenyan roads has been met with silence by a government which has run out of answers.  

 At least 138 people have died from different road accidents in the country in the month of August alone.

This is according to the statistics by the Kenya Police service collected between August 1 to 9, 2025 out of 103 road accidents in the country.

On Friday evening, for instance, 25 people lost their lives in a tragic road crash at Coptic Roundabout in Mamboleo, Kisumu while travelling from Kakamega to Nyakach.

It is reported that the AIC Naki Secondary School bus, which was heading to Kisumu from Kakamega, lost control at Coptic Roundabout and rolled into a ditch across the road.

Hours later, another accident claimed seven lives in a road accident at Korompoi on the Kajiado-Namanga highway after two vehicles, a PSV and a lorry, collided head-on.

The accident claimed the lives of the PSV driver and one of the victims on the spot, while the survivors were rushed to hospital.

On August 7, nine people lost their lives at a Kenya Railways Crossing in Naivasha after a train crashed into a minibus that was ferrying Kenya Pipeline Company employees back home.

These and other recent road accidents have not only robbed the lives of Kenyans and others left with lifetime scars.

And now Kenyans are calling for concerned authorities not only to crack the whip but also come up with proper solutions to save lives on the roads.

By Saturday evening, Chirchir was yet to issue any statement over the rising accidents or the plans to curb the carnage even as road safety crusaders blamed the Ministry for the mess on the Kenyan roads.

Similarly, the National Transport and Safety Authority was yet to give the way forward on solving the carnage, only stating that a team had been dispatched to investigate the cause of the Kisumu-Kakamega accident that claimed more than 20 lives.

“To aid investigations into the cause of the crash, the Authority has dispatched a team of road safety auditors to the scene. We will share further details as the investigation progresses,” NTSA posted on social media.

This has left a trail of questions about whether the concerned authorities are still in control even as insanity on the roads continues creeping back.

Road safety advocate Peter Murima of Motorists Association of Kenya, concerning the Kisumu accident, blamed road design, noting that there is need to reinforce the unit concerned with road designs.

“We used to have someone responsible for road design; I don’t know whether the position still exists. The last one was engineer Michael Kamau, who was a chief engineer before he became a Cabinet Secretary,” he told Sunday Standard.

To avoid such accidents, Murima says there ought to be an overall engineer tasked to oversee all road construction and designs and signage under the Ministry of Transport.

He added that while some roads are constructed by the counties, the approval ought to be done by the Ministry through its engineer so that whenever a problem occurs someone is held responsible.

“It is always easy enough to blame the motorists, which is true, that contributes a lot to road accidents, but if you go to a court of law, the claim is apportioned to every agency.”

However, Murima blamed the failure by the Kenya Railways to erect barriers in relation to  the Naivasha accident involving a train and minibus.

Busy crossing point

“Kenya Railways is supposed to put barriers at a busy crossing point and also these barriers will offer jobs.

“Right now we are talking about unemployment again but when you used to have those barriers, they are manned in shifts, which means employment,” he said.

“Even if Kenya Railways says that it is driver error, they have also contributed to the deaths of those nine people.”

Veteran chairman of Matatu Welfare Association Dickson Mbugua blamed both poor road designs and corruption on Kenyan roads, describing graft as the elephant in the room.

“Once you move from one point to the other, either driving or in a vehicle or in a truck, you just have to breathe the moment you arrive at your destination safely. Because there are too many interruptions,” he said.

Mbugua, who has been in the matatu industry since 1972, argues that there is lack of ethics on the roads coupled with poor driving skills that make motorists to be ever in a hurry.

“Every road user and those bestowed with management of the roads or enforcement all must execute their work properly, but the assignments are given by different authorities,” he said.

“The other thing is, of course, those who manage the infrastructure, particularly roads. There ought to be signage along that road or along our highways and urban roads.” 

Over time, he said, these signage have been vandalised yet they are supposed to warn drivers in advance.

“When it comes to reinforcement, that is where the big problem is. Corruption has become endemic, everybody wants to make money at all cost. That’s why now you find these things happening now.”

Owing to graft, some drivers get on the road without valid driving licences or with unroadworthy vehicles after parting with a bribe.

“That’s the elephant in the room, and that’s my understanding, my experience. That is what’s causing all these things on the roads,” Mbugua said.

National Traffic Commandant Fredrick Ochieng attributed the rising accidents to some factors including poor road designs, lack of proper road signage in some areas and human error.

“The cases have been on the rise due to many factors including the increase in traffic flow but mostly they originate from drivers who are speeding, thus resulting to human error accidents,” he told Sunday Standard.

“In some areas, the road contractors are to blame because they don’t put up proper signage like the speed that the motorists are supposed to drive in some areas.”

Even so, Ochieng said over time, the traffic department has mapped out some hot spots in the country where some officers have been stationed.

“On those areas, the officers use speed guns to tame the speeding motorists and in other places we have alcoblow officers to deal with drivers who are under influence, for prosecution purposes,” the commandant added.

“Then there are some cases of defective vehicles that lose control on the roads, that is where we collaborate with NTSA to carry out inspections.”

Ochieng added the department has created groups that bring together public transport owners and boda-boda riders where they share the fatalities on a daily basis in order to sensitise them to be cautious on the road.