End of the road for NTSA corruption cartels

The National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) has announced a major shake-up of top management to streamline operations and dismantle corruption cartels. The transport agency also announced staff reorganisation in which several top officers have been pushed out vacant and 227 employees reshuffled.

NTSA chairman Jackson Waweru said in a statement the agency, now under a new board, will advertise key management positions aimed at improving its capacity to offer services to Keyans.

The shake-up comes in the wake of double-registration of cars, which has been used to sanitise stolen vehicles or those that get into the country illegally. Also, there have been concerns about NTSA operations, where insiders have created cartels to frustrate public access to essential services like PSV car inspections and driving licences unless they part with bribes.

Inspection of PSV vehicles has been a lucrative for the cartels, which had even jammed the NTSA online services to force vehicle owners to go through their system. Most targeted for extortion are new vehicles joining ride-hailing companies such as Uber, Bolt (formerly Taxify) and Little Cab, among others, whose owners were forced to bribe to get favourable report. This is the same way unroadworthy PSV vehicles get their way to the roads.

The positions to be filled are: Director Registration and Licensing, Director Road Safety, Deputy supply Chain, Deputy Director Motor vehicle Inspection, Manager Supply Chain and Manager ICT.

The office of Deputy Director of Road Safety was left vacant following the resignation of Njeri Waithaka who left shortly after appearing in court over Dusit2D attack. The Deputy Director, Supply Chain Management also fell vacant after a resignation, and so was the case for the Manager, ICT infrastructure Services, Mr Abednego Marube, who left left.

The term of the current Director, Registration and Licensing, Jacqueline Githinji, is ending in July 2019.  The other vacant position is that of Principal Officer Motor Vehicle Inspection.

The changes come a month after Transport CS James Macharia appointed six new board members to the NTSA, who include John Ndege Obwocha, Catherine Njeri Waweru, Alice Chepchumba Chesire, Francis Kirinya Mwongo, Moses Nderitu Gachemi and Meshak Kidenda.

[ Read Also: NIC set to swallow up President Uhuru’s bank ]

The appointments were made after the authority, which was previously under the Ministry of Transport, was put under the Interior docket by President Uhuru Kenyatta through an Executive Order.

NTSA has been under scrutiny after police investigations showed that a vehicle used to ferry terrorists to the dusitD2 complex in which over 20 Kenyans were killed was fraudulently registered. At least six NTSA officials working in the inspection and registration of motor vehicle departments, information technology and licensing were arrested and charged with being part of a network that made fake motor vehicle plates.

[ Don’t Miss: President Uhuru’s hug that everyone is talking about ]