A new storm is brewing for the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) as a constitutional petition filed in the High Court of Kenya challenges the agency over an alleged unlawful hike in the cost of reflective number plates.
Former Mavoko Constituency MP aspirant and human rights advocate, Michael Musembi Wambua, filed the petition on August 21 accusing the body of arbitrarily increasing the fees without public participation or a valid explanation.
Wambua raised serious concerns about NTSA's practices, specifically pointing to a period between September 2023 and March 2024 when the agency allegedly increased the fee for reflective number plates from Ksh3,050 to Ksh3,750.
The petitioner asserts that this 25 per cent hike was done without any gazetted notice or public consultation, as required by law, and later reverted to the original amount without any transparency.
The petition highlights what the petitioner describes as "arbitrary and opaque" actions by the NTSA, claiming that the authority's behaviour breached the law by levying illegal charges. This abrupt and unexplained increase, followed by a sudden return to the original fee, left many Kenyans questioning the integrity of authority's operations.
Wambua is not just seeking accountability; he is demanding that NTSA be held responsible for what he describes as a fraudulent act. The petition further calls for the Auditor General to conduct a forensic audit of all transactions involving the fee increase during the specified period.
The petitioner is also pushing for NTSA to refund all the extra amounts allegedly collected fraudulently from motorists.
The controversy surrounding the number plate fees stems from a May incident that, according to some of the receipts annexed in the petition saw some Kenyans, charged Ksh700 more.
In May 2024, the NTSA had refuted claims that it had increased the charges, maintaining that the cost remained at Ksh3,050. Despite the agency’s denial, many motorists had expressed frustration, noting that they had been charged Ksh3,750 on the e-Citizen platform, leading to widespread speculation and dissatisfaction.
Wambua's petition also seeks to compel the NTSA to publish a comprehensive list of all services, charges, and levies offered on the e-Citizen platform. He argues that the lack of transparency in NTSA's operations threatens the socio-economic rights of Kenyans, who are being subjected to unjustified financial burdens.
NTSA has been given 14 days to respond to the petition. The case is set to proceed on October 8, 2024, when the High Court will issue further directions.
By the time of going to press, NTSA had not responded to Kenyans.co.ke.
