• The association claims the engineer is in a failed bid to intimidate and scare its members and silence them from exposing the illegal acts in the Authority.
• They also seek an order quashing the decision of Wangai declaring the members of the association non-compliant without due process of the law
The Road Safety Association of Kenya has sued the Director of Motor Vehicle Inspection Engineer Gerard Wangai for allegedly harassing them through uncalled inspections.
This, they said is aimed at edging them out from the business of vending speed governors
The association claims the engineer is in a failed bid to intimidate and scare its members and silence them from exposing the illegal acts in the Authority.
Through its chairman David Kiarie, the association has named the Engineer, Board of Directors National Transport and Safety Authority, Cabinet Secretary Ministry Of Transport, Infrastructure, Housing and Urban Development as respondents in the suit.
According to the Association, Wangai in total disregard for the rule of law unilaterally made a decision to declare their members non-compliant with the Kenya standard on maximum road speed limiters for motor vehicles parts 1 and 2.
The association notes that sometime in the year 2018, the Kenya Bureau of Standards in consultation with NTSA came up with the Kenya standard on maximum road speed limiters for motor vehicles parts 1 and 2, more specifically referred as standard Numbers KS2295-1:2018 and KS 2295-2:2018.
The aforesaid standards introduced measures aimed at curbing speeding on the Kenyan roads; this included the mounting of speed traps, limiting the maximum speed of the vehicles to reduce accidents on Kenyan roads.
“The aforesaid standards introduced a raft of conditions that required massive investments on the part of the petitioner’s members who are vendors of speed governors and seat belts,” notes the association in court documents.
The association claims its members invested heavily in the process of complying with the provisions of the new standard aforesaid in order to be licensed to conduct the business of vending speed limiters.
The association claims that it set up its independent server that would be the basic reference point to guarantee accountability in the data transmitted.
However, NTSA has never installed its independent server to date despite having compelled them to comply with the new standards prior to licensing in the year 2019.
The association claims through its Chairman, being a major stakeholder in the transport industry, and in doing its civic duty, severally informed the authority through several letters of some non-compliant and unscrupulous businesses operating outside the scope of the approved standards and regulations.
In response to the said complaints, Wangai in his capacity as the Director of Motor Vehicle Inspection of the Authority with apparent malice began to harass members of the Road Safety Association through authorizing his agents to subject their members to uncalled for inspections.
The association notes a local media did an expose on 17th January 2020 on the concerns raised by the Association and the unwillingness of the Authority to act on the unscrupulous businesses flouting the rules and regulations.
Following the expose Wangai alleged to have monitored the field performance of the Association speed limiters and found the compliance levels wanting on transmission and storage of data off-board despite there being no point of reference in assessing the conformity of the various vendor’s servers and therefore based his assessment on his own imaginations
“The first respondent has continually applied very partisan implementation of the Kenya standard on maximum road speed limiters for motor vehicles parts 1 and 2, more specifically when dealing with members of the Association as compared to other unscrupulous businesses,” argued the association in court documents.
The association wants the court to order NTSA to immediately commence investigations against Wangai with the aim of establishing any corrupt and discriminative activities perpetrated by him in the cause of his employment.
They also seek an order prohibiting Wangai from in any way causing, instructing or directing employees under his supervision to harass, intimidate and threaten their members and other compliant vendors of speed limiters without any reasonable cause.
They also seek an order quashing the decision of Wangai declaring the members of the association non-compliant without due process of the law
They also seek the court to compel Wangai to immediately step down as the director of motor vehicle inspection.