The National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) announced that they will be conducting mass enrollment drives for the Smart Driving License through Huduma Center.
“In order to serve you better, this Saturday 24th October, the following Huduma Centers will be open for Smart Driving License services from 8.00am to 3.00pm,” Huduma Center tweeted the message.
NTSA will conduct this exercise from tomorrow (24th October 2020) at Huduma Centeres at GPO Nairobi, Machakos, Nakuru, Kisii and Kerugoya. The body says you’ll need to book your visit via your TIMS account and visit.
The usual system involves one booking a visit on line via TIMS and then visiting the NTSA offices at Upper Hill to get your biometrics. This mass enrolment drive can be seen as a way for the government body to encourage the mass adoption of smart driving licences which will replace the current driving licences that have remained in use since independence.
This also looks like step one of phasing out old driving licenses that was announced by the Interior Cabinet Secretary, Dr Fred Matiangi back in January this year. He promised as from July 1st 2020, they will be processing critical identification documents within one day after application. However 2020 has been a challenging year and this is yet to be discussed. NTSA had temporarily stopped issuing smart driving licenses this year due to the pandemic and resumed in June.
The smart driving licence is what we have needed for so long. We interviewed the late NTSA’s head of ICT who gave us an inside look at the benefits of the smart driving licence. It contains a chip that will hold your biometric data and will have a points system which are deducted when you make an offence. Insurance firms will also use this data to determine insurance premiums
