Okiya Omtatah sues NTSA over plan to test drivers afresh

The National Transport and Safety Authority recently launched mandatory refresher courses for long-haul PSV drivers. PHOTO | FILE | NATION MEDIA GROUP

A suit has been filed seeking the suspension of the new curriculum for training and testing of drivers.

In a suit filed against the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) and the Transport ministry Monday, activist Okiya Omtatah seeks to stop the implementation of the Traffic (Driving Schools and Instructors) Rules 2017.

Mr Omtatah says NTSA had already published notices on its website and in local dailies announcing a scheduled vetting of all driving schools and public service vehicle operators by an interagency task force.

The notices state that failure to comply within the 14 days of the notification, will result in the automatic cancellation of the affected parties’ licences as from today, said the activist.

The intended vetting, he says, is supposed to be based on the traffic rules which have not yet been gazetted besides other policy documents. “In the circumstances and unless court interdicts NTSA’s intended vetting, driving schools and PSV operators will lose their licences,” says Mr Omtatah.

According to the activist, the rules are against public interest and cannot be implemented by most schools because of the new demands imposed on them.

The demands include a requirement that each driving school should own not less than 1.7 acres of land upon which it must develop facilities and have infrastructure of a model highway, a well-equipped classroom with computers as well as projectors and a management structure.

Mr Omtatah argues that the rules were made without effective public participation which is tantamount to harassing the affected parties. He accuses NTSA of often making knee-jerk reactions whenever there is a public outcry over increased accidents on the roads.

Mr Omtatah also accuses the agency of arbitrarily disabling e-Citizen passwords of the driving schools as well as police examiners on its portal last December.

He also argues that the government has lost a lot of money due to the disabling of the online system. “There are no provisions in law to support the policy imposing the ungazetted new curriculum on Kenyans. NTSA and the ministry have no capacity to act outside the law,” he says.