Why you must get digital number plates

"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.

The new number plates will allow for tracking of vehicle ownership in case of theft. [Silas Otieno, Standard]

"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.