• PSVs will be fitted with a modern speed governor to transmit data to NTSA.
• Driver will get an automatic message stipulating the instant fine for speeding.
Interior CS Fred Matiang’i on Wednesday warned rogue PSV drivers that technology will be used to tame them.
The CS said instant fines will be introduced and the use of Huduma Namba to track offenders through digital driving licences.
PSVs will be fitted with a modern speed governor whose data will be transmitted in real time to a technology centre at the National Transport and Safety Authority.
Matiang'i spoke during a public transport reforms conference at the NTSA headquarters in Nairobi.
Speed guns will no longer be used since the digital speed governor will automatically detect speeding and relay the information to the technology centre, he said.
The driver will get an automatic message stipulating the instant fine that he or she is supposed to pay for speeding.
Those who will not pay will be tracked through Huduma Namba. “We are not going back on the issue of speed governors. Governors must be read from the centre,” Matiang’i said.
Any driver who has not paid fines in full will be unable to renewed their licence.
"We will put all the fines in your account because we have your records and Huduma Namba," Matiang'i said.
“We are beginning a journey, walking together to bring about the desired order in the transport sector. The challenge we have in our country is hypocrisy and dishonesty.”
Matiang’i asked the Inspector General of Police Hillary Mutyembai, NTSA and other relevant authorities to strictly implement traffic laws and regulations, stating that there is no additional regulation the government will come up with.
He said the government had closed down 332 driving schools across the country, which is 51 per cent of the institutions.
The schools were shut after they failed various tests in a government crackdown.
“A 75-year-old grandfather training drivers with some old vehicles in driving schools located on top of butcheries and some ramshackle structures. Let us embrace the operations and operate as decent, organised and modern people.”
He said 35 TVET institutions had been assessed, tested and approved as centres of drivers’ training. This, he said, will give Kenyans opportunity to get driving courses from the government as opposed to relying only on the private sector.
The CS expressed the government’s commitment to enhancing road safety for a secure transport environment.
“We are commencing comprehensive reforms in the transport sector. We have worked on several efforts in the past but more needs to be done so as to restore sanity on our roads,” Matiang’i said.
He said those applying for PSV driver certificates should undergo mental tests, eye sight tests and others.
“We can’t live in a country that operates that way. We will support NTSA to implement these reforms. We must ensure that the people we give PSVs are those we can vouch for so as to be an orderly society”
Matiang’i unveiled six ambulances for post-crash care which were donated to Homa Bay, Nyamira, Kisumu, Kisii and Nyabondo hospitals by NTSA in partnership with ADB Bank and Kenha.