Government To Issue Smart Driving Licences By March

The government will start rolling out new smart driving licenses from the month of march of this year. National Transport Safety Authority (NTSA) has revealed.

According to NTSA Mt Kenya region manager Cyprian Micheka the government has already done testing of the new generation driving licenses which he said will revolutionalize road safety in the country.

Speaking to the press at Kerugoya town after sensitizing drivers and owners of Kukena sacco on new driving licenses, Mr Micieka revealed that the new driving licenses will be rolled from march but PSV drivers will be the first to be issued.

The NTSA boss explained that the smart driving license will contain electronic chip which will store all details of the driver.

He said that the driving license will be like an ATM card which will contain the name of the driver, blood group, bio metric information and keep details of any offenses the driver commit while on the road.

''The new generation driving licenses will have all information including your blood group and if you commit any offence the police officers will swarp your card and deduct points from your card''. he affirmed.

Each card will have 100 point and if the driver reaches the threshold of 40 points the card will automatically cancel the license. The driver can only reapply the new license after six month.

Mr Micheka revealed that the smart driving license will have a life span of three years and the holders will be required to reapply afresh to be issued with the new license.

''The new smart card will cost 3000 shillings valid for only three years those driver will class A driving license will be required to undergo a training before they are issued with the license or get a new license after expiry of the older one''. said Micheka.

The NTSA boss said that the drivers who licenses are automatically canceled after committing accident will be suspended for six month before he is  allowed to get back to  the road.

The NTSA said that already the government has issued direction to the effect that any driver arrested due to over speeding will be suspended for 30 days.

Kukena sacco chairman Jackson Kuria welcomed the new driving license saying that it will curb road accident.

He said that the driving license will detail every offense by the driver and the vehicle owner will be able to track the record of every driver before you employ her/him.

-Geoffrey KIbisu