Kiambu MP Jude Njomo has tabled a bill in parliament that is set to increase the speed limits on the Kenyan highways from the current 110 kph to 130kph.
If passed, the new law will affect the dual carriage highways and those classified as class A and class B in the Kenya Road Act 2007.
Class A roads are defined as trunk roads linking centers of international importance and crossing international boundaries or terminating at international ports.
Class B, on the other hand, are National roads that link centers on national importance.
The new law if passed will affect the superhighways that are 80.9 kilometers in total, 4609 kilometers of class A highways and 4689.9 kilometers of class B roads.
The legislator, who also introduced the interest cap law, wants in his bill to allow private vehicle owners to cruise to top speeds of 130kph on highways, dual carriageways and superhighways.
The traffic (Amendment) bill of 2019 tabled at the National Assembly wants vehicles that move at a speed of 70kph stick to the extreme left lane of all the roads.
“Every superhighway shall be classified as class A or Class B, will have a lane to the extreme left that would be reserved for the slow-moving vehicles and have the speed limits set as follows: One hundred kilometers per hour for public service vehicles including buses, minibusses, coaches, motorcycles and light commercial vehicles and one hundred and thirty kilometers per hour for motorcars,” Njomo suggested in his new amendments of section 94 of the Traffic Act.
If approved, the law would be a reprieve to the long distance PSV operators as the speed limit increase would reduce the amount of time spent on the road.
The current speed limits were set in 2004 under the now famous Michuki Rules where PSV vehicles are limited to top speeds of up to 80 kph.
NTSA also has restricted all vehicles operating within the Nairobi metropolis to top speeds of up to 50 kph.
