Thursday, March 28, 2024

All vehicles in Kenya to be fitted with speed trackers

BY BUSINESS DAILY

All Kenyan vehicles will be fitted with speed trackers. Apparently, a London Stock Exchange listed firm has disclosed to UK regulators its plans to supply devices which will spy on Kenyan drivers ahead of delayed launch of electronic stickers by the road transport regulator.

Starcom Plc, a leading global provider of digital vehicle tracking headquartered in Jersey, said in a regulatory disclosure on Monday it expects to start getting orders from Nairobi within the next five months.
The fitting of the digital monitoring devices will help monitor and record behaviour of the driver on the road.

This is expected to curb reckless driving on Kenyan roads and car theft, cutting claims payout by insurers which crossed Sh. 200 billion last year.

Used Cars on Sale
Used Cars on Sale

“A new opportunity in Kenya, where all vehicles will soon be required to have telematic devices fitted, has been presented to the company,” Starcom said in a trading note to investors.

“We are incorporating our technology inside a portable handheld printer which will be used by local police to inspect suspicious vehicles.”

The disclosure comes ahead of the imminent rollout of electronic stickers for Kenyan vehicles which will instantly give law enforcers traffic information such as vehicle ownership, insurance and history of offences. Details on the telematics record remain sketchy.

On Monday, the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) director-general Francis Meja said he was not aware of the Starcom contract, but reiterated moving towards digital storage and retrieval of motor vehicle data. “We will put chips in vehicles which will be updated when vehicles go for inspection. This will replace licence stickers,” Mr Meja said.

Use of chips, he added, will support additional concepts such as toll charges which the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Unit in the Treasury has been working on for years now.

The rollout of Third Licence Sticker, which will be mandatory for Sh700 apiece has been delayed from the initial target of July 2017.

The NTSA said May last year it had inked a three-year deal with Tönnjes Group of Germany for supply of 3.3 million electronic stickers.

The stickers will use radio-frequency technology to transmit information to the NTSA via hand-held readers or overhead street cameras.

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