Kenya has challenged its East African neighbours to fully implement regional road overloading law passed in December 2015.
The Kenya National Highway Authority (KeNHA) said seamlessly implementing the East Africa Community Vehicle Load Control Act, 2016, (EAC VLC Act 2016) will protect roads from overloaded trucks.
The law, which was gazetted in 2016, limits weights on the roads with tough penalties prescribed against those found guilty of contravening the laid down regulations.
According to Webuye Weighbridge Cluster Manager Antony Awendo, Kenya is way ahead in implementing the law but some EAC member states have been reluctant to enforce it along the Regional Trunk Road Network.
“Kenya with the help of KeNHA is taking this issue very seriously in the sense that all vehicles coming from Mombasa you may even have 0.02 percent that is charged unlike the vehicles that are coming towards Malaba to Mombasa,” Awendo said.
Awendo adds; “We find that the vehicles that are coming in either probably the member countries outside Kenya are not taking this law seriously and that’s why we still have overloaded vehicles coming into the country, especially the vehicles that are coming towards Malaba border into the country.”
Awendo stated that some of the loads are not confined and that some of the weighbridges are too lean on their laws as they still have loads coming in.
According to Awendo, some vehicles were still coming in with plywood.
“We want all member countries to sit down and agree on how to comply so that they may not compromise our roads,” he added.
