I never knew how serious the Government was in getting all its operations online to promote efficiency and transparency until a friend of mine went trying to renew her driving license at the Huduma Centres and was she was turned away. My friend was told she had no option but to use the online portal which the government had set up for Kenyans to renew their driver’s licenses and other important documents.The online renewal of driving licenses follows the introduction of E-citizen portal for government payment services. What this means is that no new driving licenses will be issued from banks or Huduma Centres. After my friend went through that ordeal, I thought it would be nice as a technology blogger to help two or three people by giving simple tips on how they can renew their licenses online.

So how do you do it?

First, log into the NTSA new portal (www.ntsa.go.ke) and sign up for an e- citizen account. All that is required here is your National Identity number and your first name as it appears on the National ID.

Once you create the account, you will be directed to a new window that displays services one can acquire from the portal. These services include an application for provisional driving license, driving test application, application for an interim driving license, driving license renewal, driving class endorsement, duplicate driving license and driving license information corrections.

Click on Driving License Renewal. Once you are on this interface, you will be guided on simple steps on how to renew the license and all one needs is the Driver’s Licence Reference Number found on the first page of the driving license, titled C o C in brackets. You will also be given a few guidelines plus the fees charges are which are indicated on this phase i.e Kshs. 600 plus Kshs.50 for convenience fee for one year and Kshs. 1400 plus a convenience fee of Kshs. 50 for 3 years.

Once you are done with the few guidelines,  click on the apply now option. You will be required to fill in the reference number as it appears on the Driving license as well as fill in the renewal period. After filling, you will be required to choose a mode of payment which can be through M-Pesa or through a Debit/credit card. After the payment, submission, and successful application print your renewal slip and boom, you are good to go.

NTSA also offers a mobile platform where one can find out their driving license details. You can always check by sending the word ‘DL’ to 22430 to subscribe, then dial *512#, type in your ID Number / Passport Number (The Number you used during the application for the DL) or type in their Driving License Reference Number and then Click. Each transaction cost Kshs. 6.

I hope that was helpful. If you liked this article or having problems using the portal drop us as a comment in the comments section below and I will gladly try help you out.