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{
    "id": 1372759,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1372759/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 331,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Mungatana, MGH",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Thank you, Madam Temporary Speaker. I want to join my colleagues in extending my condolences to the family of Kelvin Kiptum. A lot has been said today. I agree with all that has been said. I also want to add a few things. In March, 2010 the United Nations General Assembly passed Resolution 64 of 255, on fatalities that happen on our roads. The target at that time was that they wanted to reduce the global fatalities by 50 percent. I am addressing road safety because this is what has taken our bright shining star away. Madam Temporary Speaker, in this country, when you localize those figures, the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) tells us that we are losing about 3,000 lives every year to fatal road accidents. The National Treasury has estimated this cost to be about Kshs300 billion, roughly five per cent of our Gross Domestic Product. In actual terms, we are losing the best of our population, the younger people. I have said in other forums that when we are younger, we tend to think that the car must speed beyond 120 kilometer per hour. You must accelerate to know how it feels when the accelerator reaches the floorboards. We must have had an accident, especially, when we were younger. It will cost nothing to this Government to put something in the curriculum that creates manners in road safety. It has to be inbuilt from when we were young. Children nowadays are taught that you do not just throw pieces of paper on the road. If you try to throw a plastic bottle, your children will tell you, 'Dad, you are littering.' This is the same way manners on road safety should be in built within our children as they grow. I hope the Cabinet Secretary for Education is listening to this. The loss we suffer is because of small things like this. We forget to tell our children. They grow up, and when the hormones are raging, just when they get their first car, they get killed. Nowadays there is a new fashion. Our children will tell you that their ambition is to get a motorbike. Every time you hear this, your heart shudders because you know how you used to ride a ramshackle at that age, safer than what is available now. I believe there is a case for us to adjust our curriculum to increase the sensitivity around road safety. Road safety should not be defined as arresting people. NTSA has the funds. Why can they not create road champions? On National Condom Days, you have these guys walking all over. Why can we not have national road safety champions in prominent places like Voi on us who travel down towards the coast? In places like Nakuru and Naivasha, for those who use the other road. We should have people constantly reminding us. It is not enough to put a car that has had a traffic accident on display. This is a step forward. However, we need people to be talked to. We can move forward when we have a culture change in this country. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Director, Hansard Services,Senate."
}