Years later, tender wars stall roll out of smart vehicle plates

The new number plates will be part of a wider security system that will also include new generation driving licences.

Photo credit: File | Nation Media Group

What you need to know:

  • At stake is about Sh8 billion a year in revenues for the company that will eventually get the deal.
  • Caught in the middle of this row are motorists who cannot get a tamper proof registration system.
  • The proposed plates will have anti-counterfeit features that include holograms, watermarks, and laser markers.
  • Activist Okiyah Omtatah has alleged fraud in the government’s intention to establish the production plant.

The recent suspension of the government’s plan to establish a production plant for the much-awaited digital registration vehicle number plates has once again exposed how competing interests can stall what is otherwise a noble idea.

For the past five years, the government has been unable to successfully launch the project that was mooted in 2004 mostly due to tender disputes.

At stake is about Sh8 billion a year in revenues for the company that will eventually get the deal. This is because at least 30,000 cars are registered in Kenya every month. This will translate to Sh110 million a month as income for the company that will get the contract, or Sh1.3 billion annually on continuing registrations alone.

All the existing 2.2 million vehicles - including motorcycles and trailers -- will have to acquire the new plates, translating to about Sh6.2 billion.

Caught in the middle of this row are motorists who cannot get a tamper proof registration system that would be a big improvement on the current system.

Anti-counterfeit features

The proposed plates will have anti-counterfeit features that include holograms, watermarks, and laser markers. They will be part of a wider security system that will also include new generation driving licences.

This will not only check against double registration of vehicles but also make it easy for security agencies to get all the details they require about a vehicle on the spot through a link to a central government database.

By simply scanning a number plate with a hand-held digital device, law enforcement agencies, insurance companies and the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) will instantly obtain the name of the owner of the vehicle, the registration number, engine and chassis numbers and a history of previous owners.

This technology will put Kenya at par with many countries in the developed world and is meant to assist police track down car thieves, terrorists and other criminals. Additionally, it will give the police an advantage in tracking down stolen vehicles, as well as those used to commit crimes such as robberies and hit-and-run accidents.

Court injunctions

However, for the past five years, the government’s plan to implement the automated number plate production has been hit by court injunctions. The latest is by activist Okiyah Omtatah, who has alleged fraud in the government’s intention to establish the production plant.

“The impugned tender is both unreasonable and wasteful to the extent that it seeks to procure an entire production plant whose installed capacity will never be utilised while abandoning fully serviceable new machinery lying idle at Kamiti and waiting to be rolled out, and which the government acquired between 2013 and 2015 at more than Sh1 billion,” says Mr Omtatah in the suit.

“Over time, the fully serviceable machines lying idle at Kamiti Prison have been inspected by various government officials, including in February 2017, by His Excellency President Uhuru Kenyatta. In March 2019, the parliamentary committee on Security also made a similar visit,” argues Mr Omtatah.

The old number plates are being produced by Kamiti Prison, which has a daily capacity of 1,000 pieces. The current registration system is, however, prone to abuse by criminals and unscrupulous car dealers who use single registration documents for several cars and also divert vehicles on transit to neighbouring countries into the local market without paying duty.

But to produce new generation plates, the government would need new machine blanks and hot stamping foils. This is expected to increase the current production capacity to 6,000 number plates a day.

Tenders

However, the process for procuring these two main components of the new generation plates has been in and out of court since the idea was mooted. Tropical Technologies Ltd is the current holder of the tender to deliver blank plates while MIG Technologies is to deliver hot stamping foils.

Tropical Technologies, acting for Mulschard of Germany, is not new to this saga, having fought its way into clinching the current tender through a court process started in 2015 after the government suddenly decided to split the contract into two.

The court ruled in favour of Tropical Technologies in 2017, which allowed it to start bringing in machines and blanks.

Mr Omtatah has argued that the machines are lying idle in Kamiti, which the Ministry of Interior has denied.

“The ministry wishes to clarify that contrary to the petitioner’s allegation that some machines meant for making the number plates are lying idle at Kamiti Prison, they have been incorporated into the highly securitised new generation number plates being set up,” said Correctional Facilities PS Zeinab Hussein in an affidavit replying to Mr Omtatah’s suit.

The tender was advertised in 2018 through tender number SCD/48/2018-2021. Tropical Technologies sued the government, arguing that it had a similar contract with it.