Interior Ministry under the leadership of CS Fred Matiang'i has began the process of rapidly churning out car number plates to reduce backlog experienced at Mombasa Port.
In a newsletter dated Saturday, August 28, the Ministry indicated that it would clear the backlog in a period of two weeks.
The move follows an uproar from motorists, who claimed that importation of motor vehicles had become a time consuming affair.
Appearing before a National Assembly Committee, Interior Chief Administrative Secretary (CAS), Ambassador Hussein Dado, clarified that the situation was caused by a delay in the delivery of raw materials, occasioned by vagaries of COVID-19 pandemic on the supply chain.
The Department of Correctional Services, which is the institution mandated to make car plates in the country, paid for the consignment back in April, but the supplier couldn't service the order within the timelines agreed due to longer custom export clearances and strained manufacturing and logistics lines.
He further indicated that the consignment has been delivered to the Kamiti Maximum Security Prison, and the institution is working off-the-clock in the production of the plates with a view to clearing the backlog within fourteen days.
Motor vehicle dealers and owners have had to contend with congestion at the Port of Mombasa, but National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) recently asked the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) to authorize the release of all vehicles duly registered
NTSA also directed KRA to issue the owners or dealers of the vehicles with e-stickers upon verification of the registration status of such vehicles.
In addition, printing of log books also begun at the government printer after a brief pause caused by the breakdown of a specialized security machine whose spare parts had to be imported. The backlog is expected to be cleared within the shortest time possible.
Since the resumption of printing last week, a total of 40,000 (forty thousand) logbooks have been printed and duly collected by NTSA as August 24, 2021.
An earlier report indicated that more than 7,000 imported second-hand vehicles had been stuck at the port due to the hitch.
The cars dated as far back as July 2021.
