NTSA sets 7-day speed limiter deadline for PSVs and commercial vehicles

The National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) has introduced a stricter digital onboarding process through its Intelligent Road Safety Management System (IRSMS), giving vehicle owners a more structured route for installing, certifying and monitoring speed limiters.

The directive covers public service vehicles (PSVs) with a capacity of seven passengers or more, including matatus and buses.

It also applies to commercial vehicles with a tare weight of at least 3,048kg. Tare weight refers to the weight of a vehicle without its load.

Speed governors have long been part of Kenya’s road safety requirements for public transport and heavy commercial vehicles.

The latest directive strengthens the digital monitoring process by requiring owners to link their vehicles to NTSA-approved vendors through the IRSMS platform.

NTSA identifies IRSMS as its system for speed-limiter installation, certification and real-time compliance monitoring under the applicable Kenya Bureau of Standards specifications.

How to register a vehicle

Vehicle owners are required to access the IRSMS portal at irsmowners.ntsa.go.ke and create or verify an account using their KRA PIN and national identification details.

The system sends a one-time password (OTP) to the owner's registered mobile number.

Once verified, eligible vehicles linked to the owner's records in the Transport Integrated Management System (TIMS) should appear on the platform.

The owner then selects the vehicle requiring compliance and chooses an approved speed-limiter vendor from the available list before submitting the application.

NTSA has restricted the selection to approved vendors who are active on the system.

This gives the authority a digital record of the vehicle, its selected installer and the compliance process.

How the seven-day deadline works

The seven-day period begins after the owner submits the online application.

The vehicle must be presented to the selected vendor within that period for the required installation and registration process.

The application can expire if the owner fails to present the vehicle within the allotted time, requiring a fresh application.

After fitting the device, the vendor must register it on the platform and confirm that it is transmitting data.

The system requires at least 15 minutes of data transmission before the vendor can generate a digital fitting certificate.

The certificate is valid for 12 months.

Owners who need to change their selected vendors must submit an online transfer request for NTSA's approval.

Once the transfer is approved, the owner has 72 hours to act on it.

What happens to vehicles with existing speed governors?

The new process is not simply about buying and fitting a speed governor.

It also requires digital linkage, certification and verification that the device is functioning and transmitting the required data.

Owners whose vehicles already have speed limiters should confirm their compliance status with an approved vendor rather than assume an older installation automatically meets the current digital requirements.

The Ministry of Roads and Transport has previously directed that compliant speed limiters must be functional, store relevant data and transmit speed information to the NTSA system.

Faulty, disconnected or tampered-with devices can therefore expose operators to enforcement action.

The directive comes as NTSA steps up road safety inspections targeting defective speed limiters, driver documentation, passenger capacity and other traffic offences.