President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has expressed his trust in the digital motor number plate project, saying it will be vital in fighting criminality in Uganda.

“I’m now insisting on the electronic number plates. I want my number plates, so do not delay them. I don’t want these aimless number plates. I want intelligent number plates for the vehicles,” the president said.

He made the remarks on Wednesday, November 15, 2023, while presiding over the pass-out ceremony of 2,717 newly trained Probational Police Constables, Special Police Constables, and Immigration Officers at Kabalye Police Training School in Masindi District.

Of these, a total of 1,272 are probationary police constables for the 23rd intake, 1,388 are special police constables for the integration course for the 1st intake, and 57 are immigration officers who have been undergoing rigorous training for 12 months, 4 months, and 2 months, respectively.

Museveni noted that the electronic number plates will significantly close the criminality gap, especially terrorism, now that the force is using all the comprehensive means and assets at their disposal to defeat criminals.

“You will see these terrorists who have been killing people in Congo. We are going to finish them. We have everything needed,” the President noted.

He said the recent killings of tourists in Queen Elizabeth National Park would have been captured quickly if the work was not mismanaged by the army.

“They came to trace using their eyes at the scene of the crime. They could have brought a police dog to follow. I rang people on the ground some hours later, and the dog followed the criminals for 15 km. We got those people much later,” he added.

During the pass-out, Museveni welcomed the new officers into the force and thanked the police leadership for rebuilding the Uganda Police Force to the current 53,000 personnel, up from 3,000 personnel in 1986 after its reorganization. He, however, said this should be increased to about 92,000 to match the international policing ratio of “one policeman for every 500 people”.

“I feel very happy when I see so many young and well-educated people joining the forces. This makes training very easy, as educated people can learn faster,” the president further noted.

He told the new recruits to count themselves lucky that they are joining such a prestigious force and urged them to ensure discipline, ideology, patriotism, and love for themselves by not dying from AIDS and alcohol.

He called upon them to seek constant training to advance their knowledge within the force and use all the capabilities at their disposal, such as eyewitnesses, cameras, police dogs, telephones, and forensics, to get to the bottom of criminality.

The Inspector General of Police (IGP), Martin Okoth Ochola, thanked the President for the financial support and guidance that enabled them to transform, instruct, and nurture the new officers despite the current economic challenges.

“This is in addition to the several strings of emergency training of personnel to beef up the quality and strength of the force so as to enhance its capacity to confront the contemporary security challenges facing the nation,” IGP Ochola said.

The IGP informed President Museveni that his force is in advanced stages of improving the welfare of its officers in line with his directive. He said construction of police headquarters in Naguru is ongoing, and they will soon commission the construction of a modern 300-bed police hospital in Nsambya. He added that they hope to put up 53,000 accommodation units.

The government officially launched the digital number plates on November 2, 2023 with the first phase targeting government-owned vehicles. The Ministry of Works and Transport and the Ministry of Security are overseeing the project.

Through the two ministries, the government agreed to a 10-year deal with the Russian company to install digital tracking chips in all automobile number plates registered in the country under the Intelligent Transport Management Systems program (ITMS).