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REVEALED: Rogue traffic officers not testing driving license applicants

By MERCY NJOKI September 3rd, 2015 2 min read

After completing my theory and practical classes at a driving school along Waiyaki Way, it was time to go for the road test at Karen traffic police test ground.

I had spent the better part of the previous evening cramming roads signs and general guidelines to follow when on the road.

At the exam center, where other students from different driving schools assembled, we were issued with forms to fill that captured our details and contact numbers. We then paid Sh300 for one passport photo that was taken there, an exaggerated price I must add.

SMS REPLY

Shortly after, an SMS was sent to each one of us reading: “Your certificate of competency has been generated, login to ecitizen account and apply for your DL”.

This SMS made me think, aren’t we supposed to go through test first before being allowed to apply for the driving license?

One of my class mates suggested we might not be tested after all. She claimed that other applicants who had come at the examination center the previous day had not been tested as well!

We then paid Sh750 through M-Pesa to a number we were given by one of the staff there.

We were later asked to pay another Sh100 in cash for the services offered.

NO EXAM

Shortly after, our instructor delivered the news. “There is no exam. You can photocopy the interim Driving License sent to you on your email. Come next week for the driving license, he said.

Well, I started getting worried of the consequences of not testing potential motorists. How do you issue someone with a driving license without confirming that they know how to drive? Who does that?

No wonder there are so may incompetent motorists on the roads. No wonder there are so many accidents.

Efforts to reach the the Traffic Commandant Charlton Mureithi for comment on this issue were in vain. His phone went unanswered several times.