Kenya is finally ready to install speed cameras on the country's main roads, at least according to the National Transport and Safety Authority. All this is subject to vandalism, the proper functioning of the systems and other ‘various and eventual’ African factors.

It should be noted that the announcement came just before Easter after a six-month pilot phase on the Nairobi-Thika expressway, Mombasa Road and along the Southern Bypass in Nairobi. Only the authorities and parliamentarians were informed about the pilot phase.

Cameras secretly placed along the route filmed vehicle number plates, reported speeding and other offences and sent everything to a mobile phone linked to the vehicle's digital registration on the e-citizen portal, in the NTSA section.

With the requirement to digitise logbooks and electronic number plates, once the operations are complete, all vehicles in Kenya will be linked to their legitimate owners, who will receive messages on their mobile phones.

With the new digitisation system, drivers who exceed speed limits receive a notification on their mobile phones and fines are automatically recorded on the offender's NTSA account. If you do not pay, your profile can be used to trace when the offence took place and the fines increase, eventually becoming criminal offences, as is the case in Europe. In Kenya, we are still a long way from a modern policy to increase road safety. For example, there is still no points-based driving licence, but speed cameras are certainly a first step towards limiting speed, which is the cause of most road accidents.

During the trial phase, a member of parliament revealed to the national media that he had received two messages on his mobile phone for improper driving: one was a warning, the second informed him that he was driving at a speed exceeding 110 km/h on the Thika Highway and that he would have to pay a certain amount of money.

According to the MP, the messages contain several important details, including the licence plate number of the speeding vehicle, the time the offence was committed, the exact speed limit that was exceeded and the name of the owner registered to the vehicle.

The penalties reportedly vary depending on the area where the offence was committed and are based on the rules of the highway code. For example, exceeding the speed limit by six to ten kilometres per hour results in a fine of Kes. 3,000.

If well managed, the introduction of speed cameras will also cause problems for owners of vehicles that are lent to relatives or friends, as well as for the entire underground market of cars and minibuses that are rented illegally or purchased by one person and then managed by entire communities in exchange for payments with clear interests. On the other hand, the system will also create some problems, and much less revenue, for those police officers who, when they detect offences on the roads, have the opportunity to pocket something from the offending driver rather than issuing a ticket and sending them to court to pay the fine.

Therefore, after collecting sufficient data and refining the system, as announced by Transport Minister Davis Chirchir, the government is ready to enter phase 2 of the operation, which involves formalising the decree and finally purchasing the speed cameras.

In the end, we will know which other major roads will be affected by the new controls, but it is easy to guess that the Nairobi-Naivasha and Nakuru-Eldoret roads, which are the most dangerous roads in the country, with 50 accident victims since the beginning of the year and many more injured, will be among the first to be targeted, as well as the Nairobi-Mombasa, Nairobi-Garissa and Mombasa-Malindi roads.