Government Launches New Digital Number Plates
The Kenyan government has launched a new set of digital number plates that will have inbuilt security features. Speaking at the GSU Recce unit Headquarters in Ruiru, Nairobi, the Interior Cabinet Secretary, Fred Matiang'i revealed that the new numbers plates were more advanced than the previous one.
Leah Mukangai 
The plates are notably advanced to have security features, which allow law enforcement agencies to track vehicles. The feature is basically a microchip, which can be read by security agencies remotely. The plates also have aesthetically pleasing fonts and designs.
The plates now have a QR code, the Kenyan flag, and NTSA serial number.
Digital number plates. PHOTO FILE
This development is in accordance with the 2016 Traffic Act, which includes a provision allowing security authorities to track vehicles that may have taken part in criminal or illegal conduct.
Additionally, all imported vehicles will have the new license plates installed at the point of entry. The same exercise will be directly synchronized with KRA, the tax authority. This, it is said, will assist the agency in locating tax cheats, especially companies that sell vehicles.
Kenya now has close to 5 million cars. The time limit for changing these vehicles' current license plates to new ones is 18 months. The price of each plate is KES 3,000.
"When the NTSA team calls on Kenyans to change the plates, let us obey and get it done within those 18 months," Matiang'i stated.
According to the transport cabinet secretary, James Macharia, the new license plates will cover 12 categories of cars in accordance with Legal Notice 62 of 2016 and make it easier to monitor vehicles entering the nation, which is a significant transit center in the region.
"They form a basis for tracking and monitoring vehicles in the country which have risen significantly from 3.2M million last year to 4.8 million this year," Transport CS stated.
