Hard times are coming for all Kenyan car owners after it was announced that they are set to part with Ksh 3,000 each to acquire new digital number plates.
All the motorists will be expected to take up the new plates starting January 2020 as the government has already sought designs from three countries.
Correctional Services Principal Secretary Zainab Hussein made the revelations during a session she had with members of the parliament after NTSA announced that it would issue a fresh tender as reported by Business Daily.
NTSA's previous attempts of using the Prisons Department to pick a firm to supply the smart number plates was blocked by the court.
“We have sent a team to go to three countries to design a system that uses our own local material to produce the securitised digitised new generation number plates by January 2020,” Hussein stated.
The new system is aimed at curbing the now rampant number plates duplication which is carried out by cartels keen on evading payment of taxes.
The paper estimated the number of all motorists in Kenya, including those of motorcycles and trucks, at 2.98 million which would earn the state Ksh9 Billion in fees alone.
The new system is aimed at enabling police to track down individual vehicles and their respective owners since it will contain special features including holograms, watermarks, and laser markers.
This comes just days after NTSA raised an alarm over what it described as third party agents out to con unsuspecting Kenyans during the vehicle registration process.
The public notice published on its official social media pages denounced the existence of any firms or individuals sub-contracted by the government agency to carry out any services on its behalf.
