Chaos in motion, our roads, our shame

KILIMANJARO: When did our roads turn into slaughterhouses? A recent collision in Same District, Kilimanjaro Region that snatched away 38 innocent lives has once again thrown a harsh spotlight on an old, neglected wound: traffic law enforcement, or more precisely, the chronic lack of it.

If road safety were a national exam, we have not only failed, we have stopped showing up for class entirely. Let us not pretend this is a one-off horror.

From the madness of daladala to the zigzag ballet of bodaboda riders, our roads are ruled by chaos and powered by impunity.

We are raising a generation of motorists who think traffic lights are suggestions and helmets are fashion accessories for others.

Worse, enforcement is either a seasonal showpiece or an open cash register.

Take a walk, or risk a sprint across any major town. Bodabodas zoom past, often helmetless, carrying two, sometimes three passengers like it is a circus act.

You will find young men barely out of their teens playing dodgeball with death, veering between cars, over sidewalks, against traffic flow.

Ask them for a license and you will be met with none or a shrug or a fake document printed in the back of a cybercafé.

If the Police Traffic Department would mount an impromptu operation today, it is no exaggeration to say most of these riders would be grounded, that is to say no license, no training, no right to be anywhere near a moving vehicle.

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And yet, they ride on. Why? Because we let them in the name of job creation for the youth.

Traffic laws are only as strong as their enforcement, and right now enforcement is either asleep at the wheel or, guess! The government must stop treating road safety like a tick-box exercise during Road Safety Week and start treating it like the national emergency it is.

Going back to the drawing board is not just a catchy phrase; it is a call to overhaul how we think, train, and enforce traffic behaviour in this country.

Let us talk real training schools, rigorous testing, digital tracking of licenses, mandatory helmet and safety gear enforcement, and above all, the political will to make all this more than another half-hearted directive that fizzles out in a week.

We also need to rethink public awareness campaigns. Billboards are fine, but they don’t scare a reckless rider straight. Blood-spattered crash reenactments might.

Fear works. Shame works. Maybe it is time we used them.

But we must also ask the harder questions: Who benefits from this madness? Corrupt officials collecting roadside ‘tea’? Vehicle owners who hire untrained drivers? Politicians who throw helmets at youth like campaign merchandise and call it empowerment? We can no longer afford to sugarcoat it: our roads are killing fields.

And if we don’t slam the brakes now, the Same District, Kilimanjaro Region tragedy will not be the last headline, just the latest. So, to the Traffic Police and relevant authorities: tear up the old playbook. Draw a new one. With ink, not blood.