A whistleblower reveals corporate misconduct and hiring scandals at NTSA.

A whistleblower reveals corporate misconduct and hiring scandals at NTSA.

The National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) is beset by widespread corruption and ineptitude, according to a damning exposé released by a whistleblower.

The report accuses top officials of orchestrating system downtimes to enable corrupt dealings. 

The NTSA's mission is allegedly undermined by unsuitable qualifications, tainted hiring processes, and corporate malfeasance at the highest levels. It is also said that corruption has been institutionalised to benefit a small number of people.

Unqualified personnel are reportedly filling critical roles in vehicle inspection, road safety and licensing. 

The whistleblower claims that nepotism and favoritism have taken root, with relatives of senior officials occupying key positions, while qualified automotive engineers are sidelined.

"Keep my identity confidential. You only need to be a frequent visitor for services at the NTSA offices in Nairobi to realize that there is a deliberate effort to ensure the systems are down as often as possible to facilitate and perpetrate corruption. The Director General, George Njau, and the ICT Director one Kondiwa, are in on it, am told. But my enquiries are into the evil in the hiring of technical staff in the Motor Vehicle Inspectorate, Road Safety, Registration and Licensing department. Incompetent personnel is the source of unprofessional and half baked services. 

On the face of it, how could the director of motor vehicle inspection be a civil engineer? How could the director of accident investigations and safety audits, under the same directorate, be a civil engineer? Aren't there enough automotive engineers in this country? Additionally, the qualifications for staff in registration and licensing as well as road safety are unclear. Before the HR manual was ever developed, it is said, the current crop of employees were of all manner of extractions including veterinarians, teachers and policemen. The clerical level was the most abused with notorious instances of one director having his sons and daughters, whose surnames reverberate throughout the corridors of the organization. These kids can never be posted outside Nairobi, or there will be reprisals for the HR people. Even further down, how can the motor vehicle inspectors be from varied professional backgrounds, including civil, electrical and building services?

Why is it that those with backgrounds of automotive engineering are demeaned and looked down upon, as mere mechanics? Why are automotive staff being gradually phased out in favour of production and industrial engineers? One only needs to check out the current heads of inspections at Thika, Nyahururu, Nyeri, for example. These and many others are not automotive engineers but a misrepresentation and mischaracterisation of the automotive trade, and do not provide competent inspection services to Kenyans. Motor vehicle inspection is purely for those trained and adept at motor vehicle technology and not civil, production, electrical, plant engineers. For god’s sake isn't vehicle inspection a preserve of qualified 'mechanics' with diplomas and degrees? 

There is no room for pretenders since they have hidden agendas, and the TVET institutions are producing more than enough workers for the car inspection centres. When KPLC or KENGEN, for instance, are hiring, why isn't there such craziness? As they hire electrical engineers or technologists, why don't they also consider recruiting mechanical engineers? All organisations can be asked the same question. Why does NTSA publicly allow carpenters, masons, and electricians to be hired as vehicle inspectors? The reason for this is that corruption is being planned, established, and promoted right from the start.

NTSA bosses employ their own unqualified relatives at vehicle inspection centres to enrich their families. Equally, the corporate incest and sexcapades by senior staff against juniors, rife in NTSA needs to be wiped out once and for all. It is reliably known that one big honcho in NTSA impregnated a regional manager who was having an affair with him and later left her hanging in the air. These are some of the messy and dirty goings-on at NTSA. The solution for this malady is to carry out an audit of the professionals in vehicle inspection. If we have to get somewhere in our road safety efforts in this country, the right professionals need to occupy their rightful roles. Charlatans and pretenders need to be sent home packing, and that includes the senior bosses at NTSA. The NTSA board must not be party to the gravy train of planting their relatives in the organization."