By KIARIE NJOROGE
Friday, August 22, 2014
All vehicles more than four years old will be required to undergo mandatory inspections as the government races to remove unroadworthy cars from roads.
The National Transport Safety Authority (NTSA) Thursday said it plans to start inspections in January in line with the new Traffic Act’s requirements.
The authority is preparing regulations to guide costing of the inspection which could be outsourced to the private sector.
“We are putting in necessary structures to support the inspection but the law is already in place,” NTSA director general Francis Meja said Thursday.
“Our 18 centres are not adequate if we are to inspect all vehicles. So, we are toying with the idea of outsourcing some of these functions to private institutions. But we need to gazette their standards and the minimum requirements that they’ll need to maintain.”
Inspection will be done annually. The move is among stringent safety regulations, including the crackdown on drink-driving, meant to reduce road accidents and deaths by more than 20 per cent this year.
It is the first time motorists face such inspections which are subjected to commercial and public transport vehicles.
Kenya Motor Repairers Association chairman Bernard Ngore said that they had launched a standards manual on evaluation of inspection centres which will be important for those setting up inspection units.
“In other countries where they do motor vehicle inspection such as the UK it is garages that carry out the inspections,” he said. Motorists will foot the bill for the inspections.
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