What a Kenyan car number plate means

In Kenya, number plates are issued by the Registrar of Motor vehicles for all vehicles.

The registrar also keeps records for all vehicles registered by the department; civilian, G.K, parastatals, city/city council and UN bodies.

There are five types of number plates in Kenya issued by the Registrar; for civilian, GK, Parastatals, local authorities and diplomats.

The most common types of number plates are on a white plate with black lettering. Their format is LLL NNNL, where ‘L’ denotes a letter and ‘N’ denotes a digit.

In Kenya, diplomatic numbers given to the embassies are assigned in the order that they recognized Kenya’s independence, with Germany (then West Germany) as the first country to recognize Kenya’s independence having the diplomatic plate 1 CD.

These diplomatic registration numbers are given red number plates. An example of a diplomatic registration number is 5 CD 18 K, where 5 is the code for the diplomatic country.

CD means it is for a chartered Diplomat while 18 is allocated by the embassy, like depending on the rank of the car owner in the embassy, then the end is K which stands for the embassy is located in Kenya.

The list below shows the diplomatic sequence assignation as per 2008:

CD – Germany, 2. CD – Russian Federation, 3 CD – Ethiopia, 4 CD – China, 5 CD – Norway, 6 CD – Hungary, 7 CD – Egypt, 8 CD – Serbia, 9 CD – Italy, 10 CD – France, 11 CD – Slovakia, 12 CD – Denmark, 13 CD – Japan, 14 CD – Sudan, 15 CD – Austria, 16 CD – India, 17 CD – Australia, 18 CD – Canada, 19 CD – Holy See (The Vatican), 20 CD – Finland, 21 CD – Switzerland, 22 CD – Britain, 23 CD – Liberia, 24 CD – Israel, 25 CD – Nigeria, 26 CD – Ghana, 27 CD – Netherlands, 28 CD – Malawi, 29 CD – USA, 30 CD – Belgium, 31 CD – Sweden, 32 CD – Pakistan, 33 CD – Poland, 34 CD – Korea, 35 CD – Bulgaria, 36 CD – Greece, 37 CD – Cuba, 38 CD – Kuwait, 39 CD – Spain, 40 CD -United Nations Development Programme , 41 CD -World Health Organizations, 42 CD – United Nation Educational Science and Cultural Organization, 43 CD – International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, 44 CD – Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 45 CD – Romania, 46 CD – Thailand, 47 CD – The African Union, 48 CD – Colombia, 50 CD – Somalia, 51 CD – Brazil, 52 CD – Turkey, 53 CD – Lesotho, 54 CD – Zambia, 55 CD – Madagascar, 56 CD – Malaysia, 57 CD – D.R. Congo (DRC), 58 CD – Swaziland, 59 CD – Sri Lanka, 60 CD – Iraq , 61 CD – Rwanda, 62 CD – United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees / UN Refugee Agency, 63 CD – United Nations Children’s Fund, 64 CD – Iran, 65 CD – Cyprus, 66 CD – Argentina, 67 CD – United Nations Information Center, 68 CD – Philippines, 69 CD – Burundi, 70 CD – Chile, 71 CD – Oman, 72 CD – League of Arab State, 73 CD – European Union, 74 CD – Yemen, 75 CD – Kenya Mission to UNEP, 76 CD – Côte d’Ivoire (Consulate), 77 CD – Bangladesh, 78 CD – Saudi Arabia, 79 CD – United Nations Center for Human Settlement, 80 CD – Libya, 81 CD – Ireland (Consulate), 82 CD – United Nations Centre for Human Settlement / UN-Habitat (Kenya Mission), 83 CD – Algeria,84 CD – Palestine, 85 CD – Uganda,86 CD – Mexico, 87 CD – Morocco,88 CD – Costa Rica (Consulate), 89 CD – Gabon (Consulate), 90 CD -U.N.I.C.E.F Kenya mission, 91 CD – Indonesia, 92 CD – Portugal, 93 CD – Venezuela, 94 CD – Zimbabwe, 95 CD – International Civil Aviation Organization, 96 CD – Asian Development Bank, 97 CD – Tanzania, 99 CD – Peru, 100 CD – International France corporation, 101 CD – United Nations Environment Program Norwegian Mission, 102 CD – Mozambique, 103 CD – South Africa, 104 CD – Eritrea, 106 CD – Czech Republic, 107 CD – The Aga Khan, 110 CD – Botswana (Consulate), 115 CD – Ukraine, 116 CD – Sahrawi, 117 CD – Djibouti, 118 CD – Siera Leon, 121 CD – South Sudan.

Now you know who is ahead or behind you while you are on the road.