KENHA boss arrested for speeding, orders removal of limitTraffic police manning speed limit at Gilgil junction are up in arms against Kenya National Highways Authority (KENHA) after a 50km per hour speed limit sign was removed following the arrest of a senior KENHA engineer.A senior police officer who sought anonymity told The Standard that the traffic police officers at the junction leading to Gilgil town arrested KENHA engineer Samson Murage on Monday morning for exceeding the speed limit.“The driver behind the wheel at the time of the incident identified himself as KENHA engineer Samson Murage. The officers immediately called their bosses for directions on how to handle the case,” he said.Gilgil police boss Emanuel Opuru confirmed the arrest of the engineer who had exceeded the minimum speed limit by 25kilometers per hour.“Engineer Murage was arrested by our officers on March 4th, cruising at a speed of 75km/hr at a place where the speed limit is 50km/hr. He was taken to court and charged for the offence,” said Opuru.The engineer, however, appeared not to have taken the matter lightly and ordered the removal of the speed limit signage in the area following his arrest.The officer said Murage called his officers to remove the speed limit signage which was effected immediately.KENHA also confirmed the removal of the speed limit signage.According to Opuru, the minimum speed road sign was removed on Tuesday night by unknown people thereby halting their activities to monitor the speed limits by motorists plying along the busy route.“I’m not sure if it is by coincidence that the road sign was removed hours after the arrest of the officer. As police officers, we can no longer enforce speed limits on motorists since there is no such speed limit signage,” said Opuru.He added that it was the mandate of KENHA to erect respective road signs at various spots while the police only enforce such directives.“We shall not be regulating the speed limits at the spot until KENHA puts back the signage. We have since put in place proper signage for the weighbridge and came up with extra lanes on either side for the heavy vehicles and the speed limits signs are no longer relevant,” said Njogu.He added that the presence of the speed limit signs was the cause of heavy traffic jams at the weighbridge that saw motorists stuck for hours.Njogu, however, dismissed allegations that the removal of the signage was related to the arrest of one of his bosses.The extra lanes reportedly established by KENHA at the weighbridge have however been there for more than a year.

Source: Standard Digital March 06, 2019 14:37 UTC