My mission is to help build a culture of Safety and as an Ambassador of Safety and wellness, this is one value that I live for and where need be can die for. We need to save these lives that needlessly die because of cultures that can be changed. If every road user was safety conscious we wouldn’t be losing these lives or having people become disabled because of accidents. Safety is both an individual and collective responsibility and each and every one of us has a responsibility to help bring sanity and a culture of safety on our roads. Let us be resilient, vigilant, proactive, responsible, careful, and alert always. Let us SAY NO to road and traffic related accidents and SAY YES to discipline, courtesy, strict adherence to Road Traffic Rules and embrace the best practices in road safety and together we can build a culture of road safety and reduce these statistics. It is possible and can be done. If I took the initiative alone and with my hard earned money to help save a life and without any external incentives, you can do it. Our institutions can do it. Your church can do it. As a family you can do it. Your company can do it. Your chama can do it. As a community you can do it. Together we can join hands to help build a culture of Safety and Wellness at all places all the time. Safety is as simple as ABC(Always Be Careful) and starts with Me/You/Us. #SafetyFirst #SafetyAlways #SafetyAllTheTime Amb Steve Mbugua – Ambassador of Safety and Wellness www.ambstevembugua.co.ke

1. AMBASSADOR STEVE MBUGUA ROAD SAFETY CAMPAIGN – The mission, the Pain
and the outcome.
Since 2016, I have been conducting free road safety campaigns in the month of June and July to
sensitize the public on road safety measures. My target has been pedestrian and motor cycle
riders and every year I have been targeting a thousand road users. In the year 2019 my target
was a hundred thousand citizens across the country and my approach was to train motor cycle
riders, PSV drivers and conductors who would later sensitize their clients.

2. I printed 600 reflective vests and 10, 000 fliers, and contracted a number of young people who I
first trained and then commissioned them to help in the road safety campaign across the country.
I facilitated their lunch, transport and Ksh 500 allowance daily for about 2 weeks.
Mobilizing riders has always been a difficult task unless they are promised goodies like a Tshirt,
money etc but over time I have learnt to motivate them and hold them for some minutes before
they rush for clients. It is a tedious exercise and requires a great inner motivation, courage,
patience and selflessness.
At the CBD it is even a little bit difficult to contain riders for more than 15mins unless you pay
them to be attentive. Drivers and conductors too believes that the project is funded by some
NGOs or NTSA so they keep requesting for their ‘tip’ and so the whole exercise requires to be
calm, firm and persevering but by the end of it all I have been able to meet my target.
In 2019 before COVID struck I reached out to 6, 578 drivers and conductors at the Nairobi CBD,
and later about 5000 at Githurai stage, Ruiru, Juja, Kiambu , Thika and Nakuru(Town, Salgaa
and Sachangwan).
At the Salgaa and Sachangwan area I camped there for quite a long time training riders, drivers
and some community members and went even to my village area of Murunyu where I did train
riders at the center and had a one day Free Community Safety Training at Deliverance Church
Murunyu.
The whole exercise costed about Ksh 234, 700 which was my longtime saving and as a young
person trying to make ends meet this is quite a hefty amount which took a long time to save and
sacrificing some family activities and needs just to help prevent accidents.
I remember at some point after walking throughout the day from 7am to 6pm talking to drivers,
conductors and passengers along Thika road I developed a very serious bruise on my right toe
caused by the heavy Safety Boot that I was using and for about 3 weeks I was using sandals and
open shoes.
Another challenge I faced specifically at Limuru and Naivasha was some government transport
authority officers that I do not intend to mention that opted to authorize removal of all the
stickers we had put in PSV vehicles and several drivers were concerned about it and called to

3. report it to me but that did not bother me. Few weeks later there was a huge country wide road
safety sticker campaign from the same authority that ordered removal of the stickers I was
putting and it was mandatory for all PSV vehicles to have their stickers. I was delighted to see
their action because my motive at the end of it was to have the public sensitized on the
appropriate Safety rules and regulations to help build a culture of Safety.
According to the 2020 crash survey by the National Transport and Safety Authority, 156
passengers had died by April 13 2020 compared to 205 who succumbed by the same period in
2019.
On the other hand, more pedestrians- 367 had lost their lives since the year began compared to
348 who died in 2019.
262 motorcylists had died on the road since the year 2020 began. This is according to the 2020
survey results by the Authority dated April 23. The number was slightly high compared to 2019
whereby 204 motorcyclists lost their lives by the same date. A total of 1,022 people had lost their
lives since the year began compared to 1,058 who died in 2019.
Do you know the meaning of 1, 022 deaths within 4 months? On average we lose 5000 lives on
our Kenyan roads, just imagine. What’s the population of your church or the primary school that
you attended? What is the population in your village? If you put all these bodies in a stadium
they probably could fill the whole pitch. Imagine 5000 deaths in one year, caused by negligence
on our roads?
How many children are left without a parent, how many people lose their jobs because their boss
died in an accident, how many people became disabled, how many people are traumatized or
affected psychologically because of witnessing an accident?
During the Covid period when there were travel regulations and curfews, accidents reduced
gradually. During the curfew period, we had experienced a lot of accidents in the evenings as
people rush to beat the curfew hours.
The number of road accidents fatalities across the country was 3,707 in 2020 compared to 4,347
by mid December 2021, the highest in five years, representing a 17.3 per cent increase. The
NTSA's 16th
, December 2021, road safety status report stated that, 4,347 people were seriously
injured road up from 3,707 last year.

4. Kenya recorded 4,579 fatalities as a result of road traffic crashes in 2021, with tens of thousands
more people seriously injured.
Kenya has recorded a total of 15,924 road accidents between January 1 and September 26,
2022, the National Police Service has said. Data released on Friday, September 30 indicates that
3,541 of the accident victims (22.2 per cent) died, 7,236 seriously injured (45.4 per cent) and
5,147 slightly injured (32.3 per cent).
Again, let me ask you and please put it in your mind and heart, an estimated 3,541 people dead
and estimated 7,236 seriously injured(some died later, others completely paralyzed and others
can no longer work to earn their daily bread) by September 2022? Can you imagine the impact of
these figures and statistics? If you laid these dead bodies in a stadium won’t it look like a
massacre? Think, Think, Think more and take action, an individual commitment to never cause
an accident.
Most of the road accidents are caused by human error and thus can be prevented. They are
caused by negligence.
My mission is to help build a culture of Safety and as an Ambassador of Safety and wellness,
this is one value that I live for and where need be can die for. We need to save these lives that
needlessly die because of cultures that can be changed. If every road user was safety conscious
we wouldn’t be losing these lives or having people become disabled because of accidents.
Safety is both an individual and collective responsibility and each and every one of us has a
responsibility to help bring sanity and a culture of safety on our roads.
Let us be resilient, vigilant, proactive, responsible, careful, and alert always. Let us SAY NO to
road and traffic related accidents and SAY YES to discipline, courtesy, strict adherence to Road
Traffic Rules and embrace the best practices in road safety and together we can build a culture of
road safety and reduce these statistics. It is possible and can be done.
If I took the initiative alone and with my hard earned money to help save a life and without any
external incentives, you can do it. Our institutions can do it. Your church can do it. As a family
you can do it. Your company can do it. Your chama can do it. As a community you can do it.

5. Together we can join hands to help build a culture of Safety and Wellness at all places all the
time. Safety is as simple as ABC(Always Be Careful) and starts with Me/You/Us.
#SafetyFirst #SafetyAlways #SafetyAllTheTime
Amb Steve Mbugua – Ambassador of Safety and Wellness
www.ambstevembugua.co.ke