Hundreds of Kenyans could lose their vehicles after it emerged that employees of the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) are cloning number plates and fraudulently registering cars for sale.

“For example, if someone in Nairobi wants a cloned number plate, the registrar will find a vehicle whose owner is in Mandera, Garissa, Mombasa, Kisumu or anywhere far from the city.

"He will also ensure that the number plate of the car is not on the police radar, or somewhere in a police station,” the investigator said.

The vehicle specifications are then extracted from the owner’s logbook on the NTSA website, including colour, chassis/frame number, year of manufacture, transfer number, owner’s name, make, body type and other details.

A copy of the owner’s ID is also downloaded from the website by the insider.

“Once these have been extracted, the details are handed to the person who made the request. They then make a fake logbook elsewhere, go to a police station to get an abstract for a damaged or lost number plate and then go back to the NTSA to apply for the number plates,” the officer said.

Thereafter, the insider again liaises with the vehicle inspection department to get a certificate without having an inspection done.

He also links the "owner" of the car with an insurance broker to obtain a sticker.