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{
    "id": 292873,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/292873/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 494,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mrs. Odhiambo-Mabona",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 376,
        "legal_name": "Millie Grace Akoth Odhiambo Mabona",
        "slug": "millie-odhiambo-mabona"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me this opportunity to contribute. In contributing, I want to thank Mr. Midiwo for bringing the amendments to the Traffic Act. I would like to indicate that many Kenyans have lost their lives. I think traffic accidents could be one of the leading causes of deaths in this country. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I have had occasion to live out of the country and whenever there was a traffic accident in most of the countries even if it is just one accident the town comes to a standstill because it is a very rare occurrence. Sometimes I wonder why we even call them accidents because accidents should be absolutely remote. It should be arising from something unforeseen or something unpreventable. But many of our accidents stem from human error. Many of them are caused by people drinking and driving. Many of them are also caused by people over- driving especially public vehicles. You will find one driver wants to drive for 48 hours and yet they are not gods; they are mere human beings. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, it is because people try to make super profits. Therefore, the law must guide against unnecesary deaths. I really do not even want to call them accidents because many of the deaths that are occasioned are not by accident as such. I would even like to give as an example. I was called by a lady who I used to go to church with in Nairobi Pentecostal Church when we were bringing this and I remember she used to serve as an usher. One time I saw her walking and she was very normal. Then she disappeared for a while and the next time I saw her, she was in a wheelchair. She is now permanently in a wheelchair as a consequence of a road accident. When she saw these amendments proposed she got in touch with me because she said there are certain issues that she felt very passionately about, which she wanted to put forward and I have advised her how she can make her presentation before the relevant committees. That was a very able-bodied person who has been condemned to a life of disability through carelesseness. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, last year I lost my mother, and one of our young nephews who was coming to condole with us did not show up. When we were wondering where he was, we were told that he was involved in a road accident and that he was in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). He was a young man in his early twenties and he was called Brighton Owuya. He was in ICU for over one month and he subsequently lost his life as a consequence of a useless and unecessary road accident. I can give examples of accidents which have occurred forever. My young niece, Natalie Bellow, who is a student at a medical school, asked me the other day to say in Parliament that she has a classmate, I do not remember his name, with whom she was at Aga Khan Primary, who died at Kenyatta University as a consequence of careless driving. He was buried in Molo last month. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I am saying this to show that accidents have affected each one of us in a very personal way. There are many young people who did not need to die and who have died as a consequence of carelessness. It is within that context that I want to make certain comments in relation to this Bill."
}