This chapter is part of a larger study of road traffic accidents (RTAs) in Kenya. The chapter attempts to shed light on the contextual determinants of unsafe roads in this country, with a specific focus on the matatu culture. Matatus are privately operated minibuses that stop anywhere to pick up or drop off passengers. Through a participatory design, it seeks to engage key stakeholders in developing a shared understanding and collective engagement in efforts to reduce RTAs in Kenya. Given that limited data preclude elaborate quantitative analysis, a range of qualitative methods including stakeholder participation, group discussions, interview surveys, and policy analysis were employed to provide an understanding of the main causes of RTAs. It is shown that RTAs in Kenya are a serious and complex public health problem. From 1977 to 1996, there was a substantial upward trend in the numbers of RTAs in this country together with the associated fatalities and injuries. The full range of factors associated with RTAs include the following: (1) vehicle factors such as seat belts; (2) human factors such as speeding, overloading, reckless driving, drunk driving, fatigue, and pedestrian/passengers' lack of knowledge of road safety procedures and their rights to road safety; and (3) the physical environment such as rural/urban migration, road conditions, absence of pedestrian walkways, poor road surfaces, poor road signs, and weather conditions. The interplay among all these determinants takes place within the overarching socioeconomic environment whose most significant causal mechanisms include: lack of labour rights; corruption; insufficient and fragmented regulation of the matatu industry; absence of a traffic management and road safety system; poor law enforcement (lack of motivation in the police force, and lack of regulation by the licensing and motor registration authorities); and minimal participation of critical stakeholders: the matatu industry (owner, driver, tout, and so forth), the local authorities, and the public. The authors also criticise the current policies of the Kenyan government. In considering the way forward, the authors make suggestions of what could be done in Kenya to enhance road safety within existing legal provisions.
Samenvatting