The safety of school-going children on the roads remains a significant challenge, with Kenya losing 424 young people (aged 0-19) to road accidents in 2023. There is an urgent need to protect pedestrians, especially children.
On Friday, the FIA Foundation, AA Kenya, NGO-Amend, and ASIRT came together to launch ‘Safe and Healthy Journeys to School’ at Kayole One Primary School in Nairobi. This initiative aims to keep learners safe on the roads.
All stakeholders present acknowledged the necessity of ensuring learners’ safety, particularly on the roads.
Eric Maina, representative of Embakasi MP Benjamin Gathiru, stated, “We have seen it necessary to have walkways around schools, given that Kayole One Primary School is surrounded by a major bus stop for Kayole. We used to experience a lot of accidents that affected learners.”
Maina believes that with clear road markings and signage for drivers, accidents will become a thing of the past.
Statistics indicate that a large number of annual road fatalities involve pedestrians. Engineer Isaac Gitoho, ASIRT Kenya board chair, underscored the importance of protecting learners on the roads. He noted that Kayole One Primary has a significant population of 3,800 pupils, most of whom walk to school, making their safety crucial.
“Imagine a six or seven-year-old pupil walking alone to school; we need to teach them about road safety so that it is etched in their minds,” he said.
Aggie Krasnolucka, Programmes Director at the FIA Foundation, pointed out that Africa is particularly vulnerable to high numbers of fatalities and injuries, especially among children. She attributed this to a lack of appropriate infrastructure and political will.
“There is a need to implement safety measures around schools, including zebra crossings, speed bumps, and speed reductions, which are critical, as well as pedestrianised paths for children. All these measures collectively will ensure that children can arrive at school and return home safely,” she said.
Timothy Kelly, Director of Mobility at AA Kenya, called on every stakeholder to play their part in making roads safer, especially for children.
“At AA Kenya, we have AA Junior membership, a programme that trains children from the age of three to 17 in road safety. After launching such a project, the next phase is to teach children how to behave on the roads, how to stay safe, and how to train others to do the same,” he stated.
Simon Kalolo, Tanzania Country Director for AMEND, a global organisation working across Africa to prevent road traffic injuries, highlighted that the top intervention to protect pedestrians is to separate them from vehicles and to reduce vehicle speeds around schools to below 30 km/h. He also urged the media to play a crucial role in raising community awareness about road safety.
Krasnolucka agrees that the media plays a critical role and urges members of the Fourth Estate to advocate to the government and the wider community about the importance of safe infrastructure. She also emphasized the need for collaboration among civil society, the private sector, and other stakeholders to persuade the government to invest in this area.
“The good news is that the Kenya National Road Safety Plan, launched by President Ruto last year, has prioritised safety in schools as an important indicator. This is the first step; the second step is to invest more funds, especially from the government,” she said.
Engineer Gitoho encouraged the Kenya National Highways Authority (KeNHA), Kenya Urban Roads Authority (KURA), and Kenya Rural Roads Authority (KeRRA) to carry out cost implementation audits to ascertain whether safety levels were attained after the completion of any road construction project.
He further urged the government and other donors to come on board to scale up this initiative countrywide. On the other hand, Maina urged road contractors to use the model constructed next to Kayole One Primary School as a benchmark so that they can implement the same standards on all roads near schools. This will significantly reduce the number of fatalities and injuries resulting from road accidents.
