State approves use of personalised number plates

• A person may apply to the Registrar of Motor Vehicles to be issued with personalised number plates upon payment of the fees prescribed in the First schedule.
• Under the new rules, vehicle owners will have to pay a standard fee of Sh100,000 to obtain personalised plates from the Registrar of Motor Vehicles. Lost or defaced ones will be replaced at Sh50,000.
• This freedom extends to owners of public service vehicles (PSVs), cargo trucks, ambulance and funeral hearse vehicles, diplomatic cars, tractors, and heavy machinery.
• Vehicle owners are allowed a maximum of seven characters in capital letters to be embossed in blue, with a reflective white background on the front and rear plates even as the law prohibits use of letters “O” and “I” as well as signs, symbols, and abusive words.

The Transport ministry has lifted a ban on modified number plates, handing businessmen, politicians and celebrities the freedom to pick preferred identification symbols for their vehicles.

While the right to personalised number plates has been implicit since Section 12 of the Traffic Act was amended in 1977, it got legal force last Friday through a Kenya Gazette notice signed by Transport minister Amos Kimunya.

“A person may apply to the Registrar of Motor Vehicles to be issued with personalised number plates upon payment of the fees prescribed in the First schedule,” the notice reads in part.

Under the new rules, vehicle owners will have to pay a standard fee of Sh100,000 to obtain personalised plates from the Registrar of Motor Vehicles. Lost or defaced ones will be replaced at Sh50,000.

This freedom extends to owners of public service vehicles (PSVs), cargo trucks, ambulance and funeral hearse vehicles, diplomatic cars, tractors, and heavy machinery.

The change of heart comes just four months after the police launched a nationwide crackdown on cars with personalised plates, causing a hue and cry as owners claimed that they had paid exorbitant fees to obtain the plates.

During the March operation, footballer McDonald Mariga’s vehicle was detained for using ‘MARIGA 17’ in place of the prescribed registration numbers and letters.

Apart from Mr Mariga, several other celebrities, politicians, and businessmen have shown appetite for personalised number plates, paying up to Sh300,000 to have them fixed on their vehicles.

The Traffic Department has frequently cited Section 12 of the Traffic Act to decline requests for personalised identification by vehicle owners amid accusations that the officers took advantage of legal uncertainty to harass motorists.

Section 12 of the Traffic Act says: “No motor vehicle or trailer registered under this Act or driven under the authority of a general dealer’s licence shall be used on a road unless there is fixed thereto in the prescribed manner the prescribed number of identification plates of the prescribed design and colour on which is inscribed the identification mark of the vehicle or of the general dealer’s licence.”

“For PSVs which thrive on ease of identification, both by commuters and regulators, introducing several personalised number plates will complicate matters for those charged with managing the industry,” said Mr Dickson Mbugua, the Matatu Welfare Association chairman.

Mr Mbugua said that the Registrar of Motor Vehicles would come up with a specific serialisation for PSV number plates to ease identification.

Vehicle owners are allowed a maximum of seven characters in capital letters to be embossed in blue, with a reflective white background on the front and rear plates even as the law prohibits use of letters “O” and “I” as well as signs, symbols, and abusive words.

For government vehicles, the registration plate will identify positions of public officers by adding abbreviations.

omondi@ke.nationmedia.com