New electronic vehicle stickers. Photo/nation.co.ke
From October more than 300,000 commercial vehicle owners are expected to each part with Sh700 to acquire electronic stickers that will make it harder get away with traffic offences and help police recover stolen cars.The National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) said the stickers referred to as third identifiers will be affixed on vehicle windscreens and will in an instant indicate whether a car is stolen, its insurance status and history of traffic offences.The electronic chips come loaded with each vehicle’s details, including the number plate, model and chassis number, which are then linked to a central database.2,363 stickers have already been issued by the NTSA to persons registering new cars and is now broadening it to income-generating vehicles including public service vehicles (PSVs), trucks and pick-ups.Jacqueline Githinji, NTSA’s registration and licensing director, said “Beginning October, our online portal will be updated to allow people to pay for the sticker before proceeding for their annual roadworthiness inspection”. “These stickers will for now only be issued during inspection so motorists, whose vehicles were recently certified will get theirs when inspection is next due. We want to make this process painless.”Boda-bodas (motorbikes), tuk-tuks (three-wheeler taxis) and tractors have been exempted from the new rule. The NTSA inspects about 25,000 commercial vehicles per month.The tamperproof stickers have a shelf life of 10 years and use radio-frequency technology to transmit information to the NTSA’s core system, via hand-held readers or overhead street cameras.