A legal dispute currently at the Milimani Law Court civil and criminal divisions has exposed a new online scam at the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA).
The agency is on the spot for allegedly abetting fraud through its online transactions system.
According to court documents, the scam dates from as back as November 2017 when a motorist, who is a complainant in the case, reported that his phone number was changed in the NTSA’s Transport Integrated Management System (Tims).
NTSA system then locked him from getting any updates on transactions concerning his car because of the altered details.
The motorists accused a couple of engineering the whole scam with the assistance of an NTSA official.
The accused couple allegedly used the car's logbook to acquire a Ksh400,000 credit from bank and went on to default on payments.
The motorist learnt of the scam when auctioneers impounded his car in Nairobi city center, intending to repossess it because of the defaulted loan.
He later learnt that his car's logbook was used to secure a loan which was defaulted. He then filed a suit which is still pending in court.
This case comes even as NTSA embarks on a plan to upgrade its services and weed out cases of fraud. Earlier this year, the agency sent out a warning to motorists on an online fraud that was targetting unsuspecting vehicle owners.
The authority cautioned members of the public of fraudsters posing as its officials in online platforms pretending to issue smart driving licenses and other services.
Their warning stated that fraudsters have been deceiving and extorting unsuspecting victims of money with a promise of issuing them with new smart driving licenses within a short period.
"The Public is hereby advised to be wary of individuals/ social media platforms purporting to offer Smart Driving Licenses or other NTSA services," NTSA stated.
The public has been asked to apply for legitimate smart driving licenses at Huduma Centres across the country where dedicated NTSA stations have been set up.
This is among the plans the authority launched to address hitches in their systems. On top of that, NTSA is set to unveil the Integrated Transport Management System (iTMS) to help curb road accidents in the country.
The new system will allow police officers to automatically gather information and recommend appropriate action for Traffic Rules offenders.
"At the end of June, we shall roll it out countrywide where police will be equipped with smart applications to help them automatically collect key road data for easy action,” NTSA explained.
The new system is part of the reform being undertaken by the authority to address hitches that were experienced in the past.
