- The plates contain the registration information of the vehicle and the owner’s ID and other information.
- On driving licenses, he said the authority is now providing information on the status of an application at any stage.
Image: EZEKIEL AMINGÁ
Kenyans have been urged to expeditiously apply for new generation number plates and swiftly collect them after being notified they are ready.
The plates contain the registration information of the vehicle and the owner’s ID and other information.
NTSA data showed that as of Friday, April 5, as many as 45,000 new number plates remained uncollected.
Speaking to the Star in an interview at his office, in Nairobi, on April 5, 2024, NTSA Director General George Njao said the agency will not hesitate to enforce compliance on registration for new number plates but he also divulged that the focus should be more on the objective than the timelines.
“Part of our goal is cleaning the dataset of motor vehicle records and also providing citizens with accurate and validated information they can use to verify the same,” he said.
As many as 200,000 logbooks remained uncollected, and numerous driver’s licences.
The number plates have QR codes that give basic information about a vehicle such as its identification, make, model, and colour, which can aid a potential buyer.
“This helps one see the vehicle presented is the one they want to enter a transaction about.”
He said the government is at the final stages of integrating the vehicle records from duty, insurance, and registration perspectives.
Image: FILE
The aim is to avoid false claims, and change of data sets sun as the number of seats or passenger capacity.
“It is also part of the Kenya Kwanza administration guidelines on digitisation.”
“We hope to complete the integration before the end of the current financial year to ease access to the assets,” the NTSA boss said.
Njao said the authority was trying its best to clear pending reflective plates.
On deadlines, he said, “We want to change the scenario of last-minute rushes. We want the process to be easy, simple.”
He said the government is doing outreaches to office complexes with many employees and giving out plates.
“We are taking the service to the offices. The plan is the ease of doing business so that if you have finished the registration, we deliver it to you.”
The NTSA director general added the authority is simply returning data sets and records to owners of vehicles.
“You risk selling your car by simply giving someone codes to transact on your car. Why would you give someone else access to your assets?” he asked.
On driving licenses, he said the authority is now providing information on the status of an application at any stage.
“We have changed modes of informing the public. You will be able to see the status of the production line. We are working on an SMS short code where you can query.”
“We had thought the app would solve the problem but we want to return the USSD shortcodes to be able to access the database,” the NTSA boss said.
On rampant accidents, Njao said they have been working with the National Police Service and coordinating joint enforcement activities to check on continuous compliance across the board.