Why you must get digital number plates

All Kenyan motorists now have 18 months to acquire the new generation vehicle number plates.

Vehicle owners are required to apply for replacements at a fixed cost of Sh3,000, Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang'i said yesterday.

Matiang'i said the new plates will be issued beginning with newly registered vehicles under the KDK series.

Replacement of existing ones will start from October 1. The CS was speaking during the unveiling of a new generation of digital number plates.

Matiang'i said the registration number plates come with new in-built security features that allow for tracking of vehicle ownership in case of theft.

"In 2019, terrorists gained entry into the country with registered number plates and were unable to be traced after the Dusit attack," Matiang'i said.

"We started the process and we are able to track criminals who have been moving around with number plates registered for tractors."

The new features consist of a National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) serial number, which is a specific agent that links it with the car chassis number.

The front and rear number plates, which are different from each other, are linked in a special way.

The font of the numbers are Germany type, Forgery Empending Schrift (FE), which translate to anti-counterfeiting font created specifically to make forgery difficult.

The Kenyan flag is embedded to the plate and cannot be duplicated or forged.

The 'KENYA' watermark is embedded twice on the plate. One between the national flag and hologram watermark and also between the last digit and first numerical of the plate.

In addition, the hologram feature has five wild animals - lion, elephant, Kaffir buffalo, rhino and leopard.

Other features in the hologram are the inscription of NTSA and Mount Kenya.

The serial number that starts with NTSA is written at the rare left upwards such that when you cut the plate in two, it damages the plate features.

At the back, the plate comes with the date of manufacture, batch number and number of production machines.

Production, which uses decoying hot stamping machines, is smooth and good-looking and is no longer made at Kenya Prisons, but instead at GSU Recce Unit headquarters in Ruiru, Nairobi.

Matiang'i said the new number plates now comply with the amended Traffic Act of 2016 and will make it easy to trace vehicles in the event they are used in committing crimes.

He said the current 4.8 million vehicles in the country demand proper and accurate data analysis.

"The new-generation plates will bear additional in-built features that are linked to the vehicle chassis number with several inbuilt security features that are easily identifiable to law enforcement and comply with international standards," Matiang'i said.

In addition, the government has synchronised the plate with the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) system to help get rid of cases of tax evasion in the car-selling business.

Matiang'i said, with the additional features, it will be difficult for anyone to fake the number plate. He said all imported vehicles shall be fixed with the new number plates at the point of entry to eradicate tax evasion.

"The multi-agency unit of the security sector has stamped a new level of motor vehicle registration. This marks a historic moment in securitising vehicle registration by eliminating loopholes exploited by financial fraudsters and unscrupulous motor vehicle importers," he said.

Matiang'i said the government will give the public 18 months to transit to the next generation plates.

"In future we will not point fingers at anyone. We should be able to take responsibility when things go wrong," he said.

Transport CS James Macharia said the new plates will cover 12 categories of vehicles in line with the Legal Notice 62 of 2016 and allow ease of monitoring vehicles coming into the country that ranks as a major transit hub in the region.