There is a preventable tragedy unfolding on our Kenya roads — a full-blown epidemic that kills our children, cripples our youth, and leaves countless citizens permanently broken. Lives are being lost, futures shattered, and families destroyed
– Road crashes are claiming lives with the force of a war — quietly, daily, relentlessly.
Globally, road crashes kill about 1.2–1.35 million people every year and injure many millions more — making traffic injury the leading killer of 5–29-year-olds. With every crash, potential and promise are extinguished.
As of December 2, 2025, the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) reported 4,458 deaths on our roads — more than the entire 2024 toll. Vulnerable road users — pedestrians and motorcyclists — continue to bear the heaviest burden. Each of those numbers is a person: a child, a parent, a sibling.
This carnage is no accident. It is systemic failure — a failure of governance, planning, enforcement, and societal will. Each death and every life-altering injury represent not just personal tragedy, but a blow to our national economy, social fabric, and future prosperity. The medical costs, lost productivity, long-term care and social consequences dwarf the price of the interventions we desperately need.
It is immoral to stand by while bodies pile up. Preventable deaths and disabilities must be viewed as the human rights crisis they are. We must refuse to accept statistics as fate.
All responsible actors must act — governments must enforce evidence-based safety reforms (speed controls, safer road design, strict vehicle standards, helmet and seat-belt laws, rigorous drink-driving enforcement, and effective post-crash care). Private sector players must demand safer infrastructure, safer vehicles, and safer working conditions for their employees and all road users. Communities must refuse to normalize this carnage. Individuals must commit to safer driving, compliance, and protecting one another on our roads.
We stand on a moral imperative. We owe it to the living — and to the memory of those lost. We must act. Now!
In September 2015, the world established its global development agenda for the following 15 years, introducing the Global Goals. For the first time, these goals encompass two road safety targets:
Most deaths and injuries on today’s roads are caused by unsafe driver behaviour. Although it does happen, it is much rarer for something to go wrong with a vehicle.Drivers cause deaths and injuries when we fail to predict, see, or react to hazards.We do this when:
Psychologists have found that driving safely, all the time, is a challenge for normal people. We sometimes fail to predict, see or react to hazards because we:
The Safe System approach is a way of thinking about road safety that recognises that people make mistakes, and that the road environment can be unforgiving. Death and serious injuries on our roads are unacceptable and it is our shared responsibility to ensure safety on our roads. This requires a systemic approach to protect road users even if one part of the system fails and seeks to minimize the risk of death or serious injury by addressing the following five key components:
Roads and roadsides are designed to reduce the risk of crashes and minimize the severity of any crashes that do occur. This can involve measures such as separating different types of traffic, providing safe spaces for pedestrians and cyclists, and reducing speed limits.
Vehicles are designed to protect occupants and other road users in the event of a crash. This can involve measures such as electronic stability control, advanced braking systems, and side impact protection.
Speed limits are set to ensure that vehicles are traveling at safe speeds for the road environment. This can involve measures such as speed cameras, road markings, and road design.
Road users are educated and encouraged to behave safely on the road. This can involve measures such as driver education and training, public awareness campaigns, and enforcement of traffic laws.
It is important to respond quickly and effectively to crashes to minimise the harm caused. This can involve measures such as providing emergency medical care, clearing the road quickly, and investigating the causes of the crash to prevent similar incidents from happening in the future.
Have you ever wondered how the way you travel around your city or around the world affects the planet? The transport sector is one of the highest producers of greenhouse gas emissions and it is imperative that we reduce them in order to curb climate change.
The most urgent and necessary measures to reduce transport’s environmental impact are to increase its energy efficiency, reduce its activity and, of course, reduce its dependency on fossil fuels.
In order for transport to be sustainable, emission-free vehicles must be promoted, whether they are battery electric vehicles or green hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.
In fact, it is said that green hydrogen is set to be the fuel of the future. This element can be used as a source of energy in a fuel cell that generates electricity through chemical reactions.
Today, there are already road vehicles that work with this technology but it needs to be developed a lot more so that it can become an indispensable aspect of sustainable mobility on a global scale.
We also rely on innovation so that in the future, automated mobility and intelligent traffic management systems will make transport more efficient and less polluting.
Beyond what we can achieve tomorrow, we must urgently implement measures that can change the mobility model, today.
Transport is a crucial part of modern society, connecting communities and fostering development. However, the impact of the transport sector on the planet is huge, causing over 20% of global carbon dioxide emissions. It is therefore one of the main drivers of climate change while also having significant direct and indirect negative impacts on human health.
As populations and cities grow, the world’s transport networks will need to expand and modernize to meet demands. Sustainable transport can provide safe, accessible, efficient, and resilient mobility while minimizing carbon dioxide and other emissions. Despite these benefits, sustainable transport infrastructure is not being developed at the scale needed to adapt to ever-increasing climate impacts and to meet net-zero targets by 2050.
At Pamoja Road Safety Initiative we advocate and support all sustainable mobility measures to mitigate climate change.
PRSI will partner with people who take action in their communities by highlighting and celebrating their work in our ‘Meet Our Champions’ shout out in our website.
We call upon Partners willing to support community activities by way of issuing certificates of recognition or sponsoring other forms of recognition to road safety champions. We are here to inspire action and help people be community champions for safe and healthy mobility. Work with family and friends to join or set up a campaign locally to improve your streets. We can all be part of the solution and we will work with anyone who shares our vision and values. Share your story so that others can get inspiration from it.
We want a Kenya and world where everyone is free to move in a safe and healthy way, every day. We work to stop road deaths, injuries, and campaign for safe and healthy mobility for all.
