This sounds good, but what about Corruption 2.0 since the laptops might end up being used to create excel spreadsheets for monitoring the "contributions"...? On 1/2/11, Josiah Mugambi <jmugambi@gmail.com> wrote:

Sounds interesting.. I'm also really concerned with the road carnage.

Question: How would one get the Police and MoT on board? The issue isn't really the technology or implementation of it. -- Josiah Mugambi

2011/1/2 aki <aki275@gmail.com>

...

While this year I want to limit my contributions to the list, I'd like to share this with you. Its tragic that so many precious lives have been lost over the last days of December through greed, sheer stupidity and recklessness. I've been a kenyan road user since 86 and can tell you the situation gets bad around the festive seasons. I also think it is an impossible task for the Kenya Traffic Police to police every road to enforce the laws on safety. I've just wound up on my almost 2000km kenyan drive and can tell you this : There are plenty of dangerious drivers on the roads.

- The number one offenders are the public transporters, whether passenger or goods. - The number two offenders are private vehicle owners who are far more reckless than public transporters - The number three offenders are now motor-cyclists who are dangeriously invading the highways, carrying all sorts of goods on their bikes

The point of creating the civilian under-cover mobile units is this : - All road users know where the traffic police are. This is evident from exchanges between drivers of PSV vehicles who use hand signals or flash head lights to know the locations. If you follow a PSV vehicle, it can be doing upto a 110km/h and once they exchange the signals, the driver of the vehicle will slow down to even 70Km/h and within a short distance you will see the road blocks manned by the Kenyan Police. How can one defeat this system of abuse?

The Mobile Team Unit: - Each civilian vehicle is provided with a speed detection radar, a camera, a laptop and internet connection - The same vehicle will have a team of 4 people :

a) Driver b) A Police person, preferrably from HQ c) Photographer who edits and mails the images d) Ministry of Transport official

The flow of information: ( Operation Highway Sting )

- The driver of the civilian vehicle will maintain the legal speeds as per the highway code. This route opener will start the journey say from Nairobi to Nakuru. - Any vehicle that exceeds the speeds and passes the route opener under-cover unit will have its photograph taken with the number plate, radar speed detection and gps postion with date and time stamp. - The Police person will make a note of the number plate of the vehicle and relay the information via radio or cellphone to the Kenya Police who will be manning the road blocks. - The photographer will edit the image size and mail it immediately to the section controllers - The MOT official will provide any tips of un-roadworthiness of the vehicle to the stationary team.

The Stationary Team Unit: - Each Kenya Police Road Block along the highway eg Nairobi-Nakuru will have a stationary team to assist them with the information. - Will have a laptop, printer and an internet connection. A technology person will operate the system. - MOT Official to check roadworthiness of the offending vehicles.

The flow of information: - With a hard copy printed of the offense of over speeding or reckless driving, the Police can stop the vehicles at the road blocks and issue tickets to offenders with hefty fines to follow or block unroadworthy vehicles completely.

The benefits : - None of the highway users will know the under cover vehicles - Save Lives.

This above is just a summary, the system can be done with a central database that can track future offenders.

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Also travelling during this period, i happened to break a rule by standing in a bus (However, This is after ensuring the bus was not carrying luggage overhead and the few of us standing did not have much of an effect on the COG. I also made sure the bus was not a Nairobi - Githurai turned upcountry bus. ) Business was quite brisk , as the bus bribed both traffic and regular police(This guys man permanent road blocks and now collect bribes from PSVs) On my way back, I obeyed all Traffic rules, but again other passengers were standing as the conductor insisted the bus can carry 10 standing passengers. We passed through several Traffic police blocks and the bus would stop some distance away and the conductor would alight to go 'greet' the policemen.

From what is been gathered, it appears several of the accidents mostly involved buses, where a Nairobi bus was plying an upcountry route, and at least one incident where a Coast Modern bus had a driver new to the route. This can be attributed to reckless driving of matatus coupled with kenyan roads which normally have strange holes, bumps and other unmarked hazards which can be rudely surprising to new drivers.

I think we should have a crack police unit, similar to the ones in Need For Speed who can set up rolling road blocks. so far it seems that All traffic police have is a rubber batton for smashing windscreens and side mirrors, and is some situations,have to foot the costs as smashing windscreens is not a leag way of handling the matatus.