The county government of Mombasa, in partnership with Bloomberg Philanthropies Initiative for Global Road Safety (BIGRS), conducted a two-day training program for journalists aimed on road safety. The aim of the workshop was to enhance the comprehensive reporting of road safety and promote effective solutions that can generate media coverage and raise awareness of road safety as a critical public health concern.

During the training, the journalists were educated on the public health issues related to road safety, the risk factors involved, and the importance of reporting from a system perspective. The causes and effects of road crashes were also covered, as well as the safe system approach and the crucial role of media in promoting road safety.

Daniel Manyala, the transport CEC for Mombasa, expressed his gratitude to Bloomberg philanthropies for selecting Mombasa as one of the 27 cities globally that will benefit from the third phase of the initiative. Manyala reiterated the county’s dedication to promoting road safety and collaborating with Bloomberg Philanthropies and other partners in this effort. He further emphasized that the county is committed to reducing road carnage by 50% by the year 2025.

Samuel Musumba, the Programs Director at the National Transport and Safety Authority, highlighted the significant economic impact of road crashes in Kenya, costing around 3-5 percent of the GDP or Sh300 billion per year. Road accidents are also the leading cause of disability, health burden, and poverty in the country, often resulting in the loss of able breadwinners. Musumba emphasized that as a nation, we must take responsibility for promoting road safety and work together as a collective to put an end to road crash fatalities on our roads.

Training journalist is part of an ongoing partnership between the two institutions aimed to promote road safety, data collection and analysis, and develop new systems as needed for planning, monitoring, and evaluation. The Bloomberg Philanthropies Initiative for Global Road Safety will progressively monitor the progress and evaluate the impact of the initiative on key metrics, including crashes, crash-related non-fatal injuries, and crash-related fatalities.

Kevin Ismael, the communications coordinator for BIGRS, stated that the journalist workshop in Mombasa was a unique initiative aimed at enhancing comprehensive reporting on road safety. He expressed confidence that providing such training opportunities for journalists would enable them to influence the discussion and perception of road safety in both Mombasa city and the wider county.