Wananchi Opinion: Our roads are taking too many lives, it’s becoming normal

It’s January 2026 – and the roads are busy at it again – taking lives like they have always done. Our roads are killing us!

This has been happening for decades now. It is almost becoming normal.

In 2005 – Kenya recorded 3,000 deaths – which was one of the world's worst traffic death rates at the time, significantly higher than in countries like Great Britain or Germany.

The situation has only worsened two decades later, despite the government and stakeholders taking steps to promote road safety.

In 2025 alone Kenya lost 4,458 people on the roads – with pedestrians accounting for 1,685 of the total fatalities according to NTSA.

In 2024, more that 4,000 people lost their lives on the Kenyan roads according to National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA).

NTSA South Nyanza Regional Manager Adan Adow described the 2024 figures as “worrying” and largely preventable.

Did you know that more than 85 percent of road deaths are linked to human behaviour? Things like speeding, drunk driving, general carelessness, bad attitude, driving while distracted.

Then there is this annoying army of drivers who cannot just put their phones down when driving – instead you find them chatting up people and watching comical reels while driving.

Our roads have become highways of death; and we humans are to blame.

There are those who would like to blame the devil – but the honest measurable truth is that we are killing ourselves and other road users because of ineptitude.

You don’t have to speed. In fact, if you don’t speed, you live, and so does the other person. Speed kills! It really does!

Kenyans should remember that road safety begins with personal responsibility – it starts with you.