Questions linger as number plate deadline looms

The State minister for Transport, Mr Fred Byamukama, is today afternoon expected to answer questions regarding the readiness of a Russian firm hired to roll out digital number plates for motorists.

This follows a Court of Appeal decision yesterday in which it refused to halt the exercise slated to start on Saturday when the new financial year 2023/2024 starts.
The ruling paved the way for the government to implement the exercise.
“If I were to grant this application, it would amount to determining the appeal. The respondent (Attorney General) would, therefore, suffer an injustice of the orders in this application would in effect determine the pending appeal,” Justice Oscar Kihika, who sat as a single jurist, ruled.

Concerned activists, through Legal Brains Trust (LBT), had asked the court to issue a temporary injunction, among others restraining the government and its employees from implementing the Intelligent Transport Monitoring System (ITMS) or any programme of compulsory digital surveillance of all motor vehicles in the country.

“I am inclined to agree with the respondent’s counsel submission that the implementation of the ITMS will only require persons who own cars to obtain new number plates that are embedded with digital tracking capacities,” Justice Kihika said.

He added: “The inconvenience likely to be suffered as a result of this move can be sufficiently atoned for in damages since all people who will acquire the new number plates will pay a specific sum of money which is ascertained and can be received.”
It is, however, not clear whether the exercise will take off as the firm contracted to implement it, M/s Joint Stock Company Global Security appears to not be ready.
At 2pm today Mr Byamukama is expected to address the media to answer the concerns raised, among other issues.

But Ms Susan Kataike, the spokesperson of the Works ministry, downplayed the fears, saying the ministry is ready to commence the exercise come July 1.
“What we are focusing on effective July 1 are the vehicles that are being imported or coming into Uganda,” Ms Kataike said, adding that they will focus on several entry points including Malaba, Busia and Mutukula borders.

She added that exercise will then gradually be extended countrywide where installation of the plates will be done in car bonds and backed up by mobile facilities.

Last month, Parliament approved the mandatory use of digital trackers on vehicles and motorcycles in the country and will see data of all driving permit holders from Face Technologies integrated with the ones of the police and Uganda Revenue Authority to help track defaulters.

Car owners will pay Shs735,000 for the new security-enhanced motor vehicle plates, a figure way higher than what motorists in some neighbouring countries are paying for the same security features.

Kenyan drivers, for instance, pay Kshs3,000 (Shs78,000) for motor vehicles and Kshs1,500 (Shs39,000) for motorcycles and yet bear the same security features.
The implementation follows a signing of an agreement between the government and M/s Joint Stock Company Global Security in July 2021 to provide the country with digital number plates, a system which will involve mounting tracking Global Positioning System (GPS) chips in vehicles at the owner’s expense.
 The vehicles will be re-registered before getting issued with new digitised number plates.
 

Digital number plates
During the 2021 State-of-the-Nation address, President Museveni said he had instructed the Works and Security ministries to install digital number plates to help in the tracking of criminals who use vehicles and motorcycles to commit crime including murder.
 “..our security leaders have been working on my directive of installing digital monitors on all vehicles, bodabodas, and all boats on the lake. This will make it easy to know which motorcycle, car or boat was at this point, at this time,” he said.