Kenya National Highways Authority (KeNHA) North Rift Regional Director Engineer Samson Murage has been accused of ordering the removal of a speed limit signage near Gilgil Weighbridge after he was arrested for overspeeding.
Confirming the March 4 arrest, Gilgil police boss Emanuel Opuru told The Standard that Murage was cruising at a speed of 75km/hr at a place where the speed limit is 50km/hr.
“I’m not sure if it is by coincidence that the road sign was removed hours after the arrest of the officer," stated Opuru.
He added that as police officers, they could no longer enforce speed limits on motorists since the signage was no longer there.
“We shall not be regulating the speed limits at the spot until KENHA puts back the signage. We complement each other and ours is enforcement of the authority’s decisions on the highways,” regretted Opuru.
When Engineer Murage was contacted, he referred journalists to the Authority's Communication Officer Charles Njogu who first denied the removal of the signage and requested permission to consult.
Njogu later dismissed allegations that the removal of the signage was related to the arrest of Murage.
“The speed limits had been placed there to control traffic at the weighbridge. We have since put in place proper signage for the weighbridge and came up with extra lanes on either side for the heavy vehicles and the speed limits signs are no longer relevant,” Njogu explained.
He argued that the presence of the speed limit was the cause of heavy traffic at the weighbridge that saw motorists stuck for hours.
Standard, however, established that the extra lanes had been put in place more than a year ago.
