Losing a child is every parent’s nightmare. It’s what keeps them awake as their newborn fitfully sleeps. It’s that instinct that ensures that they fret as their university-going child goes out to the nightclub with colleagues. Personally, I didn’t understand the depth of that feeling until my wife gave birth to our child. All of a sudden, as I stared into his cherubic face, I felt an overwhelming fear that he would be snatched from me by forces out of my control.And in turn, I promised myself that I would do everything in my power to fight those forces off with all the strength in my being. So I can only imagine what Kenny Mugabo’s parents are going through right now. They watched him jump on a bus heading to Path To Success primary school in the morning, and in the evening they had to start planning his funeral arrangements. Picture that, sending your child off for their first day of school and then never seeing them again. It’s absolutely horrifying and we all need to send our kindest thoughts to his parents and the entire family.And while, fingers crossed, he remains the only fatality, 24 other children suffered physical as well as psychological injury. I don’t want to even think of the level of mental trauma these kids will have to live with for the rest of their lives. This bus accident, while absolutely heart-stopping, was a tragedy waiting to happen. I cannot even count the number of times I have seen buses, ferrying children to school, driving with almost reckless abandon. I’ve witnessed children jovially hanging out of windows and playfully running up and down the bus aisle. Mind you, school buses aren’t the only vehicles ferrying children that have caught my ire. I have also seen children, sitting in the back and even sometimes in the front seat, without a seatbelt, while their parents (or parent’s drivers) take them to school.Mind you, every single adult driving the car is wearing a seatbelt. How do we allow this to happen?Let me ask an even sadder question. How often have you seen a school going child, squeezed between a moto rider and their care-giver heading to receive an education?Have you noticed that while both adults have life-saving safety gear on (helmets), the child is only secured by the arms and upper torso of their care-giver? In case of an accident, what happens to the children in the cars or motos? Injury, trauma and death.I do understand that there is a certain fatalism that burns strong in the majority of us, a fatalism that burns a little brighter with the addition of the fuel that is Judeo-Christian/Islamic beliefs. I mean, what’s the point of safety when God is in ‘control’ and the day of reckoning is already written in the stars? To this train of reasoning I ask, do you close your eyes and cross a busy road because your time on earth is already known? Or do you, correctly. look right and then left and, only when you see no speeding vehicle approaching, cross the street? That kind of regard that we have for ourselves needs to also include our children as well. If vehicular safety is good enough for us, the adults, it’s absolutely incumbent on us to ensure that we give the same to our children. Firstly as a community, can we ensure that the vehicles that we have designated to carry our children to school are not only road worthy but also have seat belts? Can the vehicle's roadworthiness be tested on a quarterly basis by the team at Control Technique?Can our public safety institutions ensure that these seatbelts are used? If the issue is cost, and that the private sector cannot afford dedicated and safe school buses, maybe it’s up to the ministries concerned with education and transport to come up with a solution. Perhaps school transport should be organised and run by the state? Secondly, I suggest that it becomes mandatory for children, being transported by car, to be in dedicated car seats. These seats save lives and, while they might be a bit costly, it’s my belief that if you can afford a car, you can certainly afford a car seat for your children.Maybe parliament and the ministries concerned with child welfare can work on reducing import tariffs for these lifesaving implements. Thirdly, while I’m not a fan of banning things, I would certainly not make a big fuss if transporting children on motos was made illegal.Something needs to change and quickly. Every young life is precious and we cannot keep losing them as we dither and wring our hands impotently. We have too much to lose, both as parents as well as a nation that cares for its most vulnerable citizens.The writer is a socio-political commentator
