The National Transport and Safety Authority has switched on speed and surveillance cameras at strategic points on the country's main highways and warned motorists that offences will now be detected automatically, as it opens its annual festive season crackdown. The announcement landed on the same day a matatu operators' leader publicly challenged the authority over its practice of removing number plates from vehicles it deems unroadworthy.

NTSA director of corporate support services Jacob Sisey said the cameras are linked to a National Command and Control Centre that allows real-time monitoring of traffic and automated flagging of violations. Speaking at a church fundraiser at St Francis Cheptarit Catholic Church in Nandi County, he said the system is one of several measures being rolled out before December, when traffic volumes and deaths traditionally spike.

What the cameras will cost you

The authority says it is deploying 1,000 smart cameras in total, 700 fixed and 300 mobile. Under the Traffic (Minor Offences) Rules, 2016, speeding fines are tiered:

  • 6 to 10 km/h over the limit: Sh500
  • 11 to 15 km/h over: Sh3,000
  • 16 to 20 km/h over: Sh10,000

The same bands apply in designated 50 km/h zones. NTSA statistics show road deaths rose from 3,875 in 2019 to more than 5,100 in 2024, and the authority estimates crashes cost the economy about Sh450 billion a year, roughly five per cent of GDP.

Beyond speed, NTSA has listed six other areas its officers will target in the coming weeks: working speed governors on public service vehicles, valid driving licences and PSV badges, passenger manifests and route licence stickers, functional seatbelts, mandatory breathalyser tests and overloading.

Sisey also appealed to parents to keep teenagers away from the wheel during the long school holiday. "During the holidays, you find cases of children who do not have licences to drive on the roads," he said. "I am appealing to parents to be on the lookout to curb this vice."

'Why punish a vehicle with no defect?'

The enforcement push is already drawing pushback. Mass Mobility Operators Association chairman Wilfred Bosire, speaking on a KBC panel on Tuesday, questioned why NTSA officers remove number plates from vehicles during the crackdown, saying a new vehicle with no visible defect had been stripped of its plates. He argued that reckless driving is a driver problem, not a vehicle problem, and urged the authority to adopt measures that hold individual drivers accountable instead.

Bosire also linked steep traffic fines to bribery on the roads, saying drivers who cannot afford the penalties are more likely to negotiate with officers. He warned that hired vehicles tend to be driven more carelessly over the holidays and that accidents climb sharply in December.

NTSA's ongoing day-and-night operation, branded Msimu Bila Ajali, Usalama Barabarani, targets drunk driving, expired licences, lapsed inspection stickers and uninsured vehicles. Operators say they support safer roads but want enforcement that targets behaviour rather than grounding vehicles and the crews who depend on them.

With the Eldoret-Nakuru highway crash earlier this week still fresh, the question for commuters is whether cameras and roadblocks will change driver behaviour before the December rush, or simply raise the cost of being caught.

Photos: KNA via The Star (NTSA's Jacob Sisey at Cheptarit, Nandi); KBC via Kenyans.co.ke (Wilfred Bosire). Thumbnail design: HAMASTA MEDIA.