200,000
During the 10 years to 2014, the Kenya Police Service recorded more than 200,000 road traffic casualties. More than 30,991 people lost their lives, 82,321 were seriously injured and 86,688 slightly injured.
One in 50 deaths in Kenya is caused by road traffic accidents. Road crash deaths have climbed from being the ninth leading cause of death in 2010 to the seventh in 2014, overtaking meningitis, according to data from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics.
Road traffic deaths increased by 21 per cent from 2010 to 2014, outpacing all other top ten causes of deaths, while deaths from four of the top ten killers decreased over this time.
Most of the road crash casualties are productive young adults in the prime of life. A person aged between 30 and 34 is six times as likely to die in a road accident as a person aged 10-14.
While the price paid by the victims and their families is immeasurable, the annual cost to the economy for 2014 was about Sh310 billion or five per cent of Kenya’s Gross Domestic Product. Dr Duncan Kibogong, Deputy Director, Safety Strategies & County Committees says the amount is expected to rise over time.