The National Transport and Safety Authority (Amendment) Bill, 2024 sponsored by Limuru MP, Hon. (Eng.) John Kiharu has been read in the National Assembly for the first time. 

The principal objective of this Bill to amend the National Transport and Safety Authority Act (Cap. 404), by conferring the National Transportation and Safety Authority (NTSA) with the function of overall responsibility for safety of all forms of transportation. 

 The Bill seeks to redefine land transportation as any transport that occurs on dry land and includes road transport, railway transport and transportation through the use of pipeline. 

 The amendments are meant to see an integrated and unified approach adopted in the regulation of safety of the various modes of transportation. Currently, regulation of the different modes of transport is left to individual regulatory agencies. These amendments are aimed at promoting transportation safety as well as to enhance overall transportation efficiency.

 The proposed Bill looks to emulate best practices witnessed in other jurisdictions where regulation of the different forms of transportation is integrated under one regulatory agency. 

 Presently, the legal framework does not provide for a coordinated approach to transportation safety, which has created a scenario where individual regulatory agencies in the transportation sector adopt independent safety measures.

 The Bill further seeks to amend the Kenya Maritime Authority Act (Cap. 370), the Merchant Shipping Act (Cap. 389) and the Civil Aviation Act (Cap.394) to confer the powers of investigating marine and aviation accidents and incidents upon the proposed National Transportation and Safety Authority. The Bill also provides for transition and savings provisions, occasioned by the consequential amendments.