The National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) Director General, Nashon Kondiwa, has defended the authority’s decision to require motorists slapped with instant traffic fines to make payments physically at KCB Bank branches.
Speaking on Tuesday, June 30, Kondiwa explained that NTSA deliberately avoided using the eCitizen platform for the payments, citing the risk of fraud.
The NTSA Director General noted that fraudsters can exploit motorists by sending fake payment links via SMS.
“The reason why we are not using eCitizen is because of fraud. When it is M-Pesa, confusing someone is very easy, so we are having a second layer before people pay.
“For eCitizen, the payments are mostly made via M-Pesa or credit card; there is no physical interaction,” said Kondiwa.
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The NTSA boss said that the move to require motorists to pay the traffic fines at KCB Bank branches is an additional layer of verification to protect them from being defrauded.
“We are adding physical interaction because before we even launched this system, we had a lot of people sending SMS claiming to facilitate instant fine payments.
“Out of an abundance of caution and to protect Kenyans, we added another layer of physical interaction,” Kondiwa stated.
He noted that at the KCB branches, motorists can verify the fine reference number before making the payments.
“When you go to KCB bank branches, you will have the reference number, and you will find that same reference reflected in the bank's system, so that you're not paying money to an account without another level of verification,” Kondiwa added.
On June 1, NTSA rolled out a new digital enforcement framework for minor traffic offences.
In a statement, the authority explained that motorists who commit certain offences will not always be required to appear in court immediately under the new system.
"Under the new framework, motorists who commit certain minor traffic offences will no longer need to appear in court immediately. Instead, they may receive a Police Notification of Traffic Offence," the statement added.
NTSA further detailed how offences will be detected and how notifications will be issued to offenders.
"Offences can be detected either by police officers during routine enforcement or electronically via traffic cameras and other digital monitoring systems. Once sufficient evidence is gathered, the notification will be issued to the driver or the registered vehicle owner," the statement further read.
The authority said motorists can get notifications of instant fines in several ways, including personal delivery by police officers, affixing the notice to the vehicle, or electronically via SMS and email.
Motorists who receive the notices will either have the option of admitting liability and paying the prescribed fine within the stipulated period or disputing the allegations in court.
