At least 300 pedestrians in Nairobi were arrested by the police on Friday October 15 for crossing roads at undesignated places.
The suspects were forced to either spend the night behind bars or pay fines ranging from Kshs300 to Kshs3,000.
The arrests followed a joint operation between the Kenya police and Kenya Urban Roads Authority (KURA) at Outer Ring footbridge in Pipeline, Nairobi.
According to the KURA Director General Engineer Silas Kinoti, the said area recorded a highest number of fatalities of road accidents involving pedestrians.
He further noted that 40% of road accidents are pedestrian related.
He cautioned city residents from flouting traffic rules while saying that a crackdown had been intensified in the city
“One of the major reasons for accidents is that Kenyans are always in a rush and do not want to take a little effort to protect themselves. This needless loss of lives on our roads is unacceptable. The footbridges are there to protect their lives,” Kinoti said.
He also said that they would be repairing and cleaning footbridges to make them user friendly for pedestrians.
Aside from that, Kinoti warned boda boda rider from using footbridges to cross highways while urging them to put on helmets, wear reflector jackets and only carry one passenger at a time.
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