Jean Todt visits Kenya

26.08.15
On August 25 and 26 2015, the FIA President Jean Todt visited Kenya in order to discuss traffic and transportation issues in Africa and beyond

Jean Todt Kenyatta

On the morning of August 26 Jean Todt, FIA President,  met with the President of the Republic of Kenya, Uhuru Kenyatta. President Kenyatta outlined the road safety situation in Kenya and presented the measures implemented by the National Traffic Safety Authority.

He offered to further collaborate with UN Agencies on the ground and to keep building on the momentum, which saw Kenya taking major steps toward the reduction of drinking and driving and the strengthening of law enforcement at the national level. 2014 saw a reduction of fatal road crash victims by 9.7 percent in the country with a total of 311 lives saved.

On the day before he met with key UN agency representatives headquartered in the UN Nairobi hub. Jean Todt met with the Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), UN Under-Secretary Achim Steiner.

They discussed how UNEP could better integrate road safety within its country projects, noting that road crashes require a multifaceted approach to answer to the developmental and environmental issues streaming from poor infrastructure and congestion.

The FIA President then met with Dr Aisa Kirabo Kacyira, Deputy Executive Director of another UN agency headquartered in Nairobi, UN Habitat. Dr Kacyira detailed the need to include smarter and safer transportation within urban planning for developing countries. Goal 11 of the Sustainable Development Goals to be formally adopted next month underlines the importance of road safety as part of city planning. This will be on the agenda of the Second High Level Ministerial Conference on Road Safety to be held in Brasilia in November 2015 and of the Habitat III Conference to be held in Quito in 2016.

Finally, the FIA President met with Sahle Work-Zewde, the Director General of the United Nations Office in Nairobi (UNON). Together they discussed what could be implemented to improve the safety of UN employees when at the wheel; staff members and their families are 15,000 strong at UNON.