NTSA has announced to crackdown on owners using unregistered vehicles bearing foreign registration plates .
Director General Francis Meja said a police crackdown will target vehicles bearing plates inscribed as X-GK, X-KA and X-Diplomat but whose owners do not have the necessary documents.
“The authority has also noted an influx of vehicles bearing foreign number plates. We wish to clarify that vehicles bearing numbers like X-GK are not registered and are therefore operating illegally,” Meja said.
Kenya is in the process of rolling out trials of a new digital number plate system that aims to help police track stolen cars and improve the vehicle registration process.
Kenya is continuing and is committed to its drive to become one of the most advanced cities in the world when it comes to transportation.
In dubai , Under new plans, digital licence plates are fitted to cars in order to automatically inform the emergency services in case of an accident.
The plates are connected to GPS transmitters inside the car and inform not only emergency services and the police in the event of an accident, but also other road users to warn them of traffic disruption.
The digital number plates would be synced up to a user’s account so that any outstanding parking fees, road fines or licence plate renewals would be automatically deducted.
The plates could also change to display a special alert or some other form of warning if they’re stolen.
However the east African nation motorists will required to pay the government more than Sh6 billion to acquire new high-tech vehicle number plates expected to replace the current ones in the coming months.
Each owner of a car, a bus, a lorry or a pick-up will pay Sh3,700 for the new plates that come with a microchip that can be read remotely, while motorcyclists and trailer owners will pay Sh1,500, according to newly gazetted rules.
Kenya has 2.2 million vehicles on its roads — including motorcycles and trailers — translating to about Sh6.2 billion new number plate acquisition fees.
Francis Meja, the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) director-general, said the vehicle owners will be required to gradually replace their number plates.
“We will give people a time frame within which to make the transition. We will tell people that within this period (one or two years), they will have to change their number plates,” said Mr Meja.
The agency must, however, await the court’s decision on a legal suit filed by one of the losing bidders for the contract to supply the new plates.
Mr Meja said replacement of the number plates will begin as soon as the multibillion shilling suit pitting Ugandan firm MIG International against Tropical Technologies, the current supplier of number plates, is completed.
MIG International was awarded the Sh2 billion number plate supply deal alongside Germany’s Hoffman International. But the Public Procurement Administrative and Review Board (PPARB) annulled the tender following an appeal by Tropical Technologies.