Driving schools intensify demand to open NTSA portals

The Kenya Driving Schools Association has urged the High Court to direct the NTSA to unconditionally open its portals to enable users obtain licenses for driving schools.

More than 1,200 driving schools businesses with an investment portfolio of about Sh3 billion have been rendered redundant after the National Transport and Safety Authority shut down the portals.

The association said 30,000 Kenyans employed by driving schools are staring at total loss of employment unless normalcy is restored through opening of the portals.

They also said there was no prior warning given that the portals would be disabled and there was no other option or alternative for them to access government services to continue with business.

The association wants the court to issue an order requiring the Transport CS James Macharia and NTSA director general to publish a public notice in the local dailies and in the official websites of Transport ministry.

The order should inform the public that NTSA portals are reopened and services suspended in February this year have resumed.

According to court documents, NTSA's decision to disable the portals, which implements the 2020 Traffic Rules, 2020, was in compliance with a judgement delivered by Justice Antony Mrima in January this year.

The association has disputed this. It said the court never gave any order in relation to the portals or services offered through the portals.

The association further said the portals were also not an issue canvassed in the case. Justice Mrima in his judgement suspended the implementation of the Traffic Rules, 2020.

The rules, gazetted by the government in 2020, sought to have driving school instructors reapply afresh for licenses for Sh30,000.

The regulations also sought to delink driving tests from the Kenya police and have NTSA officers examine the students.

Mrima said the suspension will be there, pending a reconsideration of the traffic rules by the two houses of Parliament.

The judge said there was no doubt that adequate public engagement on the contentious rules was undertaken by NTSA.

“Nullifying the impunged rules will result in confusion in the sector since the entire process will have to be undertaken afresh,” he said.

If legislators are unable to finalise debating the rules within the remainder of their term, the rules, he said, will be discussed after the August election.

But the association said it cannot find any part of that judgement delivered on January 27 that required NTSA to disable the portals and neither were the portals any of the issues canvassed in the case.

“The disabling of the portals was a decision that had nothing to do with the order by the court and is therefore unlawful,” it said.

It also said there was a directive issued by the National Assembly on March 17 to NTSA to have the portals reopened, but this has not been effected.  

Services halted by NTSA following the court’s decision are licensing of driving schools, renewal of driving school licenses, licensing of driving school instructors, among others.

(edited by Amol Awuor)