From January of next year, Kenyan motorists will be required to acquire high-tech license plates that will be used for vehicles.
Vehicle owners will need to pay Ksh3,000 for each of the new license plates.
The introduction of smart license plates follows an increase in the number of license plates being duplicated by tax evaders and criminal organizations.
The HSRP (High-Security-Registration-Plate) plates come with a non-removable snap-on lock. The HSRPs save information like the engine and chassis numbers in a central database. The information aids in locating a stolen vehicle. A stolen car can be identified using the stored information and a 10-digit PIN. Only after the vehicle owner provides crucial information such as the engine and chassis numbers are the HSRP plates issued.
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The plates now also bear the Kenyan flag, a QR code, and an NTSA serial number. This development is by the 2016 Traffic Act, which includes a provision allowing security authorities to track vehicles that may have taken part in criminal or illegal conduct.
Additionally, all imported vehicles will have the new license plates installed at the point of entry. The same exercise will be directly synchronized with the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA). This, it is said, will improve the agency’s efforts to find tax evaders, especially auto dealers.
Kenya now has close to 5 million cars. The maximum amount of time allowed for these vehicles to move to new license plates is 18 months.
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