Private car owners in Kenya have gained a temporary reprieve after the High Court in Kiambu put a stop to the new NTSA rule requiring annual inspections for privately owned, non-commercial vehicles.
Justice Francis Nyungu Kyambia issued the order on July 1 after Wilberforce Akello filed a petition against the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA), the Cabinet Secretary for Roads and Transport, and other respondents.
The judge certified the case as urgent and froze several parts of the Traffic Motor Vehicle Inspection Rules, 2026, specifically as they apply to private cars.
The suspended rules covered a wide range of requirements. One set the annual testing mandate itself. Another laid out what happens when a vehicle fails inspection, including timelines for re-checking defects.
READ: Everything You Need to Know About NTSA Mandatory Vehicle Inspection Rules
A third dealt with penalties and impoundment for driving without a valid inspection certificate. The court also froze a rule requiring telematic systems to be fitted in vehicles, along with the fee schedule NTSA had set for different vehicle categories.
Alongside these, the court suspended the notice NTSA had put out in late June announcing that private vehicle inspections would begin. The judge was clear that this freeze applies only to private, non-commercial vehicles.
Public service vehicles, commercial vehicles, driving school cars, and government vehicles are not covered by the order and remain subject to the rules.
Akello now has 7 days to formally serve the petition and the court order on all the respondents. NTSA and Transport Cabinet Secretary Davis Chirchir then have 14 days from being served to file their responses.
The matter is set to be argued in full on July 22, 2026, and the conservatory order is expected to stay in place until then, unless a court decides otherwise.
Interestingly, NTSA had already begun backing off some of these same requirements before the court stepped in. Director General Nashon Kondiwa said the authority agreed with Parliament to roll out the new regulations in phases rather than all at once.
He said private vehicle inspections would not be enforced until licensed private inspection centers are actually up and running, and told traffic officers to hold off on enforcing the inspection rule during roadside checks.
That rollout plan was concerning because NTSA currently only has 17 inspection centers, all run by the authority itself. The agency has said it wants to work with private operators to build out 70 more, with full enforcement targeted for around June 2027.
READ: How to Pay NTSA Instant Fines for Speeding Tickets
NTSA also eased up on two other fronts.
School transport operators will not be penalized for skipping the installation of reflectorized red stop arms and telematics systems required under the 2026 School Transport Rules, and commercial vehicle operators will not be penalized for missing the telematics requirement under separate 2026 regulations.
