Members of public look on as vehicles of investigations officers leave NTSA offices, Upper Hill, carrying suspects, computers and laptops in relationships with corruption and registration of fake number plates. ON 30/01/2019. [Jenipher Wachie, Standard]
The police raided the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) offices for the second day on Wednesday and arrested staff after confiscating computers in probe into cases of double registration of vehicles.
Detectives from Anti-Terror Police Unit led the operation and arrested a director in charge of registration with his clerks.
This was the second day the officers arrived at the offices in Upper Hill to seek information on how the cases were registered.
The officers blocked entrance into the offices as they went in for a search. They also shut down the system as part of probe into claims of fraud and corruption at the authority.
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This affected many people who were waiting outside for service.
“I came on Monday to renew my licence and was told to return today (Tuesday) only to be informed that they were not working," an Uber driver lamented.
Some civilians who were inside the office at the time of the raid told The Standard that the officers asked them to leave. NTSA staff were held in the building and were not permitted to leave.
The detectives were seeking information on all cases of double registration that have been reported in the country.
“This is huge probe which has affected many motorists. It involves tax evasion, fraud and terrorism,” said an officer aware of the probe.
The team later drove out of the authority offices with the arrested officials, computers and documents.
Director of Criminal Investigations George Kinoti said they are investigating serious cases threatening the safety of the country.
Other officials said a team had been set up at the ATPU offices to analyze all cases that have been reported to authorities over double registration.
This came days after the police established a car used in ferrying terrorists to the dusitD2 complex incident in Riverside on January 15 was fraudulently registered.
The car had similar registration numbers to another one that was in Kitengela. The issue is under probe.
NTSA officials have said they will cooperate with the investigations.
More cases
Last week, police opened investigations on how two different cars bore similar number plates.
This was after a motorist who had parked at a city hospital called police saying he had spotted another car with similar registration numbers as his.
Collins Okeya said he had on January 25 taken his daughter to the hospital when he noticed another vehicle with similar numbers as those of his.
Okeya was driving a Subaru Lagacy car with registration number KBZ 142F and had parked at the MP Shah Hospital when he noticed a Toyota Harrier car, pearl white in colour with same plate.
Okeya said he immediately notified the hospital security and the police but stayed at the parking lot to see who the owner of the other car was.
Police from the nearby Parklands Police Station arrived there and detained both cars. Officers from Anti-Terror police also visited the scene.
The owner of the other four-wheel drive car said he had barely had the vehicle since he had bought it a week back from a dealer not well known to him.
The owner had not been given his ownership documents by the seller.
Joint team of Flying Squad and those from the Parklands DCI said they have established the four-wheel drive car had had its chassis number tampered with.
