Activist claims intended vetting is supposed to be based on the rules, which have not yet been gazetted besides other policy documents. FILE PHOTO | JENNIFER MUIRURI | NMG
He is seeking to have the Traffic (Driving Schools & Instructors) Rules 2017 suspended.
Mr Omtatah argued that NTSA has already published public notices on its website and local dailies announcing a scheduled vetting by an inter-agency taskforce of all driving schools and public service vehicle operators.
He also claimed that the intended vetting is supposed to be based on the rules, which have not yet been gazetted besides other policy documents.
The National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) together with the Ministry of Transport are facing a legal battle over the new curriculum for training and testing of drivers.
In a suit filed against them yesterday, activist Okiya Omtatah seeks to have the Traffic (Driving Schools & Instructors) Rules 2017 suspended.
Mr Omtatah argued that NTSA has already published public notices on its website and local dailies announcing a scheduled vetting by an inter-agency taskforce of all driving schools and public service vehicle operators.
He claimed that the impugned public notices clearly 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 (March 20).
He also claimed that the intended vetting is supposed to be based on the rules, which have not yet been gazetted besides other policy documents.
“In the circumstances and unless the court interdicts NTSA’s intended vetting, driving schools and PSV operators will lose their licences,” said 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 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 ICT teaching aids classroom with computers as well as projectors and a management structure.
Mr Omtatah argued that the rules were made without effective public participation hence vetting driving schools as well as PSV operators using yet to be gazetted laws is tantamount to harassing affected parties.
He pointed a finger at NTSA for “often taking knee-jack reactions” whenever there is a public outcry over increased accidents on the roads.
He further accused NTSA of arbitrarily and without notice disabling E-Citizen passwords of the driving schools as well as police examiners on its portal, last December.
He said that NTSA went ahead to re-configure the online portal with the new curriculum and demanded that driving schools must comply with the rules before being are issued with new passwords.
He argued that following the new measures, the affected driving schools are now faced with bankruptcy and are now at the verge of collapsing since most of them have not conducted any business since December 29, 2017.
He also argues that the government has lost a lot of money due to the disabling of the online system following the impugned administrative actions of the sued parties.
This, he argued, has inconvenienced proprietors of driving schools and those who would like to join such institutions to train as drivers.
“There are no provisions in law to support the impugned policy imposing the ungazetted new curriculum on Kenyans, NTSA and the ministry have no capacity to act outside the law,” he said.
He added that there are no measures taken to cushion driving schools and PSV operators as well as other affected business from losses incurred.
He therefore wants an order issued stopping NTSA and the ministry from implementing the ungazetted rules.
