The Minister of Internal Affairs, Major General (Rtd) Kahinda Otafiire, has expressed stiff disagreement with the government over the digital car number plates’ project awarded to a Russian company.
Gen. Otafiire informed the parliamentary committee on Tuesday, February 22, 2023, that a letter he had written to President Museveni advising him not to hire a Russian company to oversee the project in Uganda was stolen and that he doubts whether it was ever delivered because he never got a response.
“I wrote that the Russian company can work with the current manufacturers of number plates in Uganda and explore the possibility of putting their chips on the number plates in Uganda. I intimated to him that it would be a bit insensitive for us to shut down a local manufacturer in favor of the importation of number plates when we can do it here. I never received a reply; I doubt whether the President received that communication,” said Otafiire.
Minister Kahinda also admitted that he is unhappy about the increase in the cost of digital number plates from Shs150,000 to Shs714,300, and neither the police nor the Ministry of Internal Affairs had a hand in the pricing.
Otafiire denied knowing the Russian Company, saying his Ministry and the Police have never held talks with the Russian Company, despite being key stakeholders in Uganda’s security.
In response to MPs’ concerns that Joint Stock Corporation Global Security might be breaking into Uganda’s security system, Kahinda also denied giving the corporation permission to utilize the police CCTV cameras.
“And the ICT managers of the police tell me that there will be complications if we try to integrate the two systems. The police are insisting we should go for the 3rd phase of the CCTV project; it would play the same role as what these people are suggesting,” said Otafiire.
The government postponed the mass rollout of digital number plates, saying it intends to first prepare and sensitize the public about the importance and relevance of the service to our road safety and security.
In 2021, the Ministry of Works and Transport (MOWT) and the Ministry of Security, acting on behalf of the government, contracted Joint Stock Company Global Security (JSCGS), a Russian firm, to supply digital number plates embedded with surveillance chips under the envisaged Intelligent Transport Motoring System (ITMS).
