Background of the Study Road accidents rank high among the major development challenges currently facing many countries of the world (Borowy, 2013). The frequency, magnitude, and impact of global road carnage are very worrying. Traffic road accidents are ranked ninth in the cause of death in the world where over 50 million people are hurt or seriously injured. An estimated 85% of the deaths occur in developing countries with 65% of the deaths being pedestrians and 35% are children (WHO, 2015). A World Bank report on road accidents in developing countries depicts worrying trends as the number continues to rise causing more harm to the economies of these countries as compared to developed countries (Koptis & Cropper, 2003). They also noted that developed countries register fewer traffic road accidents compared to developing countries though they have more vehicles. Japan, whose number of registered motor vehicles stood at 707 vehicles for every 1000 people, registered 5507 fatal accidents. South Africa, with 165 vehicles for every 1000 people, registered 13954 fatal accidents while Kenya with 24 vehicles for every 1000 people, registered 3302 fatal accidents in 2011 (Verster & Fourie, 2018). In an effort to address road safety, the developed countries have put elaborate measures such as speed control, helmet and seat-belt use, use of road signs, child restraint, deterring drunk-driving and having stringent standards for acquiring driving license among others. These measures are strictly followed and whether they have resulted in reduced traffic road accidents. Tingvall (2009) observed that apart from road safety measures directed to motorists, passengers, and pedestrians, developed counties have also developed road safety policies and enacted laws to address traffic road accidents. Kenya has a fairly good road network as compared to its neighbours in East Africa region. In an article published in World Bank website, Morisset (2012) argued that good road network has a direct impact on the development of a country. He further noted that Tanzania lags behind in economic development as compared to Kenya due to an inferior road network. He also argued that there is a very strong positive correlation between a country's economic development and the quality of its road network. That has been observed in disparities of economic development in Kenya and Tanzania; a case attributed to differential road networks in both countries. Road transport in Kenya is currently the most

This article sets out to unravel aspects of environmental changes in the Upper Tana during the second millennium AD. This aspect has not been adequately addressed in the Upper Tana. This makes it clear that a lacuna exists in the study of communities of the Upper Tana and the way they interact with their environment in the past and present times. The objective of this article is to evaluate the relationship between human activities and environmental change in the Upper Tana from AD 1000 to 1950. It is hypothesized that the advent of iron technology and its attendant economic activities led to the depletion of indigenous forests and the general environmental degradation. The article has employed archaeological, ethnographic, oral and historical methodologies to gather data on vegetation change in the Upper Tana and other related regions.  The article, argues that livestock grazing, iron smelting, slush and burn agriculture, and the clearing of forests for housing are key contributors to vegetation change in the Upper Tana.  Results from oral reconstruction of the past vegetation of the area, and using the plant succession theory, shows that the lowland area of the Upper Tana is actually savanna with scattered trees probably inhabited by grazers. It is posited that the above factors, together with persistent droughts have altered the vegetation cover of the area.  What we have today is colonization of less desirable stunted growth. The theory advanced here is that the vegetation change has been a result of human activities.  Overwhelmingly, results the study that the researcher carried out, showed that the causes of these changes have been socio-economically associated with the expansion of agricultural communities into the area; rather than through climatic factors. Colonisation and other forces of modernistion have also contributed to the underlying problem. The article concludes that anthropogenetic factors have greatly contributed to environmental change in the upper Tana. Certainly, environmental change is a global phenomenon that has elicited research interests due to its negative impacts on human population. It is recommended that knowledge of environmental change in the past should be used to extrapolate modern environmental challenges affecting African ecosystems.

This paper attempts to reconstruct pastoral Neolithic (PN) communities of southern western Kenya subsistence patterns. Generally, subsistence patterns of PN have mainly been reconstructed through cultural materials and food remains found in the archaeological sites. As the basis of the reconstruction of prehistoric and historic subsistence patterns, these sources are inadequate due to the relative generalization of pastoralists’ behaviors and their choices regarding acquiring, preparation and subsequent disposal of food remains. Fundamentally, the aim of this study was to interrogate the subsistence strategies of PN sites of Ngamuriak using ethnographic study of contemporary Maasai community. Thus, middle range theory whereby ethnographic information was employed to interrogate the findings. Notably, data from one months of participant observation, extensive oral interviewing and administration of the survey to 40 households shows that some of the food consumed by pastoralists’ communities cannot be traced in archaeological data. Key findings demonstrate that a considerable percentage of foods are acquired, prepared, consumed and disposed away from the homestead. On the other hand, pastoralists’ communities will venture into other forms of subsistence such as crop agriculture, fishing or hunting and gathering when circumstances allow hence they are not fixed in livestock as their only mode of subsistence. Finally, diversification is one of the key adaptation strategies that enable nomadic people to settle in one area for a long time. These findings should, therefore, trigger a dialogue on shortcomings of archaeological remains as the only basis of interpreting subsistence patterns of Pastoral Neolithic communities as well as insistence of using better methods such as froth floating in future to search for carbonized seeds in these Pastoral Neolithic sites.