A tragedy that has become synonymous with the Christmas festivities is the spike of road accidents as more people travel upcountry or on holiday during the festive seasons.
The authorities are holding inspections on major roads with the aim of curbing road accidents.
In Eldoret town, for instance, police impounded over 200 vehicles and arrested 100 drivers for non-compliance.
During the inspection exercise, the police officers, accompanied by officers from the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) saw hundreds of vehicles pulled over in a random inspection.
Earlier in December 2020, Interior Chief Administrative Secretary Hussein Dado sent a warning to drivers.
"As people go to celebrate, my first warning is to drivers of public service vehicles, we are watching you. NTSA and traffic police are on the road.
"We are going to enforce the law to its fullest. We will not allow you to play with the lives of Kenyans so I'm appealing to all drivers to be careful, look after the lives of passengers," he noted.
According to a report released on November 16, Nairobi remains the most dangerous county to drive in based on the statistics of road accidents for the year 2019/2020.
Road accidents in Nairobi alone claimed 433 lives in 2019/2020 as compared to 439 in 2018/2019.
Nairobi was followed by Kiambu which recorded 311 deaths, an increase from the previous year's 290.
The other counties rounding up the top 10 are Nakuru (280), Machakos (205), Makueni (155), Kakamega (140), Murang'a (131), Meru (119), Kisumu (107) and Kericho (105).
The report also indicated that the number of road accident fatalities countrywide jumped from 3,337 in 2018/2019 to 3,567 in 2019/2020.
In an annual report by the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) in 2019, Nairobi alone was seen to have 74 black spots, with seven spots identified from Bellevue Point on Mombasa Road to the Nairobi-Machakos county border.
Roads with the highest number of accidents were found to be; Thika Superhighway, Landhies Road, Haile Selassie, Eastleigh First Avenue, Juja Road, Jogoo Road, Lunga Lunga, Likoni, Kangundo, and Eastern bypass.
Other roads the report indicated were North Airport Road, Enterprise, Southern bypass, Naivasha Road, Valley Road, Mbagathi Road, Langata Road, Limuru Road, and Northern bypass.
In previous years, NTSA had revealed areas that experience the most number of accidents.
In 2017, the mapped areas were along the Nairobi-Nyeri-Isiolo, Nairobi-Embu-Meru, Nairobi-Mombasa, Nairobi-Malaba, Nairobi-Narok-Kisii-Migori and Nairobi-Naivasha-Gilgil-Nyahururu roads.
