Motorists who fail to pay Sh. 3,000 for the new number plates over the next eighteen months will have to part with Sh. 20,000 fine or go to jail for six months.
This is the legal directive that has come with the new number plates that were launched on outgoing Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i in August.
“Any person who contravenes any of the provisions in the traffic rules, which no specific penalty is provided, is liable for a fine not exceeding Sh. 20,000 or imprisonment for six months or both,” states the Traffic Act.
The new number plates will see the government collect up to Sh. 12 billion from vehicle and motorcycle owners.
According to Matiang’i, the plates that shall be fixed to vehicles imported to the country at the point of entry will be synchronised with KRA systems to help rid cases of tax evasion in car selling business.
The computerized number plates are claimed to have anti-counterfeit features, including holograms, watermarks, and laser markers, are expected to make it easier for the police to trace information on particular vehicles and their owners.
“The capability allows us to change to the country’s 4.8 million vehicles to the new generation plates but that has been extended to a period of 18 months. When the NTSA team calls on Kenyans to change the plates, let us obey and get it done within those 18 months,” he said.
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The new plates will cover 12 category of vehicles in line with the legal notice 62 of 2016 and allow ease of monitoring vehicles coming into the country that ranks as a major transit hub in the region.