Detectives from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) have arrested 11 individuals suspected of orchestrating high-level motor vehicle registration fraud at the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA).

The arrests followed a thorough system audit, conducted by cybercrime detectives, of the NTSA's Transport Integrated Management System (TIMS) which revealed multiple fraudulent vehicle registrations.

"In the ongoing probe conducted by Cybercrime sleuths, the main suspect identified as Jimmy Kibet Wayans, was arrested at a house in Lavington where he operated a suspicious account that had infiltrated the TIMS system to illegally introduce vehicles," the DCI said in a statement on X, formerly Twitter.

"For instance, in the months of March and April alone, 47 vehicles had their chassis changed while 54 were fraudulently added into the system, laying bare the extent of the fraud perpetuated by the criminals."

The audit also revealed that Wayans, who is not an NTSA employee, played significant roles in NTSA's back office operations and had control over numerous fake accounts within the NTSA system.

"Detectives are also investigating how a deactivated account belonging to a former ICT officer at NTSA was reactivated and was being used for back office transactions, several months after he had tendered his resignation in July 2022," said the DCI.

"Following the revelation, three NTSA employees Anthony Waithaka, David Migwi and David Kimaren were also arrested, in the elaborate criminal enterprise that also involves officials from the Kenya Revenue Authority."

One Boniface Njoroge, a KRA official, was also arrested in connection to the elaborate fraud scheme. Also arrested were Denis Wafula, Anthony Kariuki and Marvin Renisi, Julius Kiprop, Amos Muthaki and Caleb Odiambo.

In the past, the DCI has unearthed "how corrupt officials at NTSA collude with bank employees as part of an elaborate scheme where one motor vehicle registration number and its logbook would be registered to more than one vehicle and the fraudulent logbook used to secure loans from banks and microfinances."

"Before the bona fide owner of the logbook realized that his/her logbook had secured a loan, auctioneers from the microfinances involved would be rudely knocking on their doors, to impound and sell the vehicles for not ‘servicing’ loans that they did not take," said the DCI.

Consequently, two individuals were arrested at a cyber cafe in Nairobi with genuine motor vehicle logbooks, highlighting corruption within NTSA.

"At the cyber, an application for a logbook would take a few hours before it was delivered from an insider at NTSA while other Kenyans waited for their documents for months. The mastermind of the syndicate would also illegally develop affidavits and commission them, before sending them to their contacts at NTSA for forced transfer of motor vehicles," said the DCI.

"In a matter of minutes, the transfer of a motor vehicle would be finalized exposing the possibility of one’s vehicle being transferred without their knowledge."