NAIROBI, Kenya, Oct 6 — Three National Transport Safety Authority (NTSA) employees are among 11 persons arrested in an investigation over vehicle registration fraud.
The Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) made the arrests on Thursday after uncovering infiltration of the Transport Integrated Management System (TIMS) and illegal listing of units.
Authorities identified the suspects as Anthony Waithaka, David Migwi and David Kimaren in an elaborate criminal enterprise that DCI said involved officials from the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA).
The arrests came after detectives conducted a comprehensive system audit of TIMS after suspecting that crooked NTSA officials were operating back office accounts to register motor vehicles fraudulently.
DCI said the operation conducted by cybercrime sleuths based at the National Forensic Laboratory began with the apprehension of the prime suspect Jimmy Kibet Wayans at a house in Nairobi’s Lavington area.
Detectives sad Wayans allegedly operated a suspicious account that had infiltrated the TIMS system to illegally introduce vehicles.
“For instance, in the months of March and April alone, 47 vehicles had their chassis changed while 54 were fraudulently added into the system, laying bare the extent of the fraud perpetuated by the criminals,” DCI said on Thursday.
Major back office operations
Further investigations revealed that the suspect, who is not an employee of NTSA, had major back office roles and was in control of several other fictitious user accounts in the NTSA system.
Detectives are also probing how a deactivated account belonging to a former ICT officer at NTSA was reactivated and was being used for back office transactions, several months after he had tendered his resignation in July 2022.
So far, one suspect from KRA identified as Boniface Njoroge has been arrested as detectives launch manhunt for other suspects involved in the illegal Other suspects arrested include, Denis Wafula, Anthony Kariuki and Marvin Renisi, Julius Kiprop, Amos Muthaki and Caleb.
Previously, DCI agents had unmasked how crooked officials at the motor vehicle registration body were colluding with rogue staff working in Microfinance institutions and street brokers in fleecing motor vehicle owners of their hard earned monies.
This is after detectives uncovered an elaborate scheme where one motor vehicle registration number and its logbook would be registered to more than one vehicle and the fraudulent logbook used to secure loans from banks and microfinances.
“Before the bona fide owner of the logbook realized that his/her logbook had secured a loan, auctioneers from the microfinances involved would be rudely knocking on their doors, to impound and sell the vehicles for not ‘servicing’ loans that they did not take,” DCI said.
Logbook scam
This was followed by the arrest of two men who were busted at a cyber café located in Ngara, along Desai road, with 450 genuine motor vehicle logbooks.
At the cyber, an application for a logbook would take a few hours before it was delivered from an insider at NTSA while other Kenyans waited for their documents for months.
“The mastermind of the syndicate would also illegally develop affidavits and commission them, before sending them to their contacts at NTSA for forced transfer of motor vehicles,” DCI added.
This among other complains from frustrated Kenyans put the NTSA on the spot, prompting the ongoing probe sanctioned by the DCI Director, Mohamed Amin.
Recently the Roads and Transport Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen visited the NTSA headquarters where he assured Kenyans that sanity would be restored at the agency.
