• Children face increased risk on the roads during school holidays when they spend more time outdoors and in public spaces. Sadly, many of the accidents that occur during this period could be avoided with greater awareness, caution, and community responsibility.

As children continue to enjoy their school holidays across the country, scenes of laughter, playful shouting, and neighborhood games fill our streets once again. It's a beautiful reminder of what holidays were — and still should be: a time for children to be free, joyful, and safe.

But unlike the holidays many of us grew up with, today’s roads tell a different story. And that’s why the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) continues to issue a strong and timely reminder: let’s keep our children safe on the roads during this holiday season.

For many Kenyans, school holidays in the past were about pure, offline joy. We played football in open fields, raced homemade wire cars, fetched water from nearby streams, and rode bicycles without fear of traffic. 

Our roads were rarely busy, and community members acted as the first line of safety for every child.

There were no mobile phones just the sound of your mother’s voice calling you home from four plots away. There was no Uber, just legs that could walk kilometers. No one wore helmets, but no one was speeding past children on village paths either.

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Our safety was in the simplicity of the times. Now same joy, greater risk.

Today, children still play. They still run, roam, and enjoy the freedom of being out of class. But the world around them has changed. Roads that were once quiet are now busy shortcuts.

Bodabodas speed past gates and estates, often carrying young passengers without helmets. Private vehicles weave through narrow streets, many driven by impatient, distracted drivers and many children especially in urban and peri-urban areas are exposed daily to the risk of road accidents.

Children face increased risk on the roads during school holidays when they spend more time outdoors and in public spaces. Sadly, many of the accidents that occur during this period could be avoided with greater awareness, caution, and community responsibility.

With children at home and outdoors more than usual, NTSA continues to urge parents, drivers, bodaboda operators, and communities at large to stay alert and put child safety first.

“Kids on the move! Keep them safe at every step,”NTSA continues to emphasize in its road safety campaign.