Friday, 28 February, 2025
Transport Committee considers the National Transport and Safety Authority (Amendment) Bill, 2024
National Assembly, Tuesday, February 18, 2025
The committee on Transport and Infrastructure chaired by Hon. George Kariuki today convened a meeting to analyze the National Transport and Safety Authority (Amendment) Bill, 2024 sponsored by Hon. (Eng) John Chege Kiragu, who is also a member of the committee.
The Principal object of the Bill is to amend the National Transport and Safety Authority Act to assign the function of overall responsibility for safety of land transport including transport by road, railway, pipeline and any other form of land transport to the National Transport and Safety Authority.
In a briefing to the MPs by legal counsel, the proposed Law seeks to have an integrated and unified approach towards regulation of safety of various modes of transportation, unlike the current fragmented approach where different regulatory agencies regulate different modes of transportation.
This is in order to promote transportation safety and enhance transportation efficiency.
In addition, the Bill seeks to provide a mechanism for safeguarding transportation safety and investigating transportation accidents, and making appropriate recommendations to forestall future occurrences of such accidents.
The committee, led by Hon. Kariuki, acknowledged the timeliness of the Bill, despite their varied opinions on whether NTSA should be the body mandated with the duties or if the sponsor of the bill could agree to merge with the cabinet on the establishment of a Kenya Transport Accident Investigation Bureau.
In 2023, Cabinet approved the establishment of the Kenya Transport Accident Investigation Bureau as an independent and autonomous agency for road, rail and water transport. Now this Bill aims to establish a Bureau that will establish the separation of transport safety regulation from accident investigations to ensure autonomy and objectivity.
According to WHO report on global status on road safety 2023, Kenya has witnessed an increase in accidents where fatalities have increased specifically in the road transport sector.
Kenya has the fifth highest road fatality rate in the African Region at 28.3 deaths per 100,000, Comoros 29, Zimbabwe 29.8, Guinea-Bissau 30, and Guinea 37 deaths per 100,000.
A 2018, Audit by International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), Kenya scored the lowest value in the Accident Investigation due to lack of: capabilities; investigators; training; tools; and functional separation.
The current institutional framework in the country maintains a lack of independence of Kenya’s Air Accident Investigation Department (AAID) which operates within the Ministry of Roads and Transport.