Lawyer Admits Using NTSA Website To Stalk Man She Liked

Waithera Kihara, a commercial and corporate lawyer and advocate of the High Court of Kenya, became an internet sensation on X (formerly Twitter) following her narrative of using the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) website to spy on a 'gorgeous' man she bumped into.

Waithera in a thread spoke highly of the said man whom she happened to stumble upon on a Wednesday evening some few months ago when he parked right next to her and entered a pharmacy in a huff.

Admitting that she was under the influence following her adventures in Tigoni, Limuru, Kiambu County, Kihara beautifully described the man as a well-off individual with fine taste in luxury depicted by the kind of car she indicated he was driving.

A person stalking with his laptop. /FILE

"I'd parked at that new arcade near UNEP on Limuru road minding my business when this gorgeous man parked right next to me and dashed into the pharmacy real quick. He was driving this pearl-white VW (Volkswagen) Touareg and given how he parked, he's used to getting away with things phew!

"5'9 at best, medium build, not dark not light, bald, frameless spectacles (the ones newly monied men get from abroad to make a statement), sexy man," her flowery tweets read.

Though rubbishing the assumption that he was a lawyer owing to his corporate outfit of the day, Kihara added that she memorised his number plate as he drove off, committing not to look him up unless she couldn't stop thinking about him, until...

"Two days later this fool was still on my mind for some reason and I could somehow still remember his number plate so I did this lil invasive but allowable thing okay? I NTSA'd (searched on NTSA website) the number plate and got a name.

"Remember that clean corporate look? yeah he had to have a LinkedIn account so i keyed in his name on linkedIn (fingers crossed) and there he was!" she exclaimed.

Given that she had not used her LinkedIn account for a while, she requested to connect with him and stayed off the app out of anxiety that she did the one thing that was prevalent in her recent past.

Kihara would then message the man on LinkedIn and after he didn't respond, she realized that she had not included her phone number which she promptly did, afterwhich he messaged her on WhatsApp.

"I was stunned! Like, I truly didn't think he'd ever get in touch! Tell me why we did a two hour + phone call (on the first call) and he called again first thing in the morning, has been texting all day and sneaking quick calls uuuugh!" she narrated in seeming disgust.

The thread depicting Kihara's unorthodox methods of winning over a man she clearly had a crush on, quickly went viral with a section of Kenyans online lauding praises on her for her steadfastness in pursuing a man and her relentlessness in finally nailing down a crush.

Many on X, however, were critical of Kihara's methods and expressed fear regarding their data safety especially on government platforms, which were not too long ago compromised in a series of cyber attacks from a hacker group in Sudan.

Some even lamented how easy it is, for example, for someone to simply look you up on the NTSA database, find your name, look up your digital footprint and actually find you, even though the whole process costs Ksh550 on the TIMSVRL (Transport Integrated Management System) portal.

In Kenyan law, stalking is considered harassment and as such falls under domestic violence. Whether online or offline, stalking can also cause fear, constant worrying, and anxiety, and if it continues for a long time, it could trigger a mental illness.

People waiting for services at NTSA offices. /FILE