For close to one year now the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) has not been issuing new Kenyan drivers with either old-format driving licenses or the new digital driving licenses in Kenya.
Instead it has been a pain in the neck for new drivers who applied for their licenses as early as June last year. Abel Mutiso is one of the many drivers who are stuck with the limiting interim driving license. “I applied for my driving license in Nairobi in May last year. I was told it would take only three months before I got the valid and longer lasting driving license but this has since not happened,” he says.
Since then, Abel says that he has been going to the NTSA offices every two months to have his interim renewed. “They just sign and tell you to go back after the period expires” he says.
Many of those who spoke to Bizna Kenya complained that the NTSA has pegged its failure to issue them with new driving licenses on the roll out of digital driving licenses in Kenya that are yet to be launched.
“We are being told that they want to issue us with the new digital licenses,” says Michele Wairimu, another driver who has been using her interim license since July last year.
Ironically, the NTSA has been selectively issuing the digital licenses to high profile Kenyan individuals and media personalities under what it terms as the piloting phase.
Motorists were supposed to start using digital driving licenses in Kenya in July last year. At the time the NTSA had announced that 100,000 of the smart cards have been made in readiness for distribution to motorists.
The launching of the digital driving licenses in Kenya was then pushed to late October. Since then, the transport and safety authority has remained largely silent on when the licenses will be launched and when new drivers can get their official driving permits.
A spot check on the NTSA official page revealed that many of the queries on digital driving licenses in Kenya from new drivers who are yet to get their licenses months after applying for them went unanswered. Those that got responses had the same answer: “The smart driving licenses will be rolled out soon!”
“This drag on of digital driving licenses in Kenya is inconveniencing because I’m limited on when and how I should drive and who I should have in my vehicle,” says Mutiso. “Needles to say, the delay makes us look and appear as rookies!”