By Haggai Matsiko & Agather Atuhaire
As July 01 which is the new launch deadline for digital number plates in Uganda approaches, The Independent has new details about Security Minister Jim Muhwezi’s troubles in ensuring it does not fail this time – despite many concerns.
Details emerging centre around a meeting that Muhwezi called in the President’s Office in Kampala on Feb.13. In attendance at the high level meeting held in the cabinet library were about 30 officials from different government agencies connected to implementation of the digital number plates project or the Intelligent Transport Monitoring System (ITMS), as the project is officially called.
Also present were officials from the contractor, Joint Stock Company Global-Security, who make up the project implementation team. Readers will recall that the rolling out the digital number plates was initially scheduled for Feb.01 but the project implementers led by Muhwezi had failed to meet that deadline.
As of March this year, only 240 government vehicles had been fixed with digital number plates yet Uganda had slightly over 2.3 million private and government vehicles by 2020, according to statistics from Ministry of Works and Transport.
Apparently although the contractor is Russian, the plates are actually manufactured in Poland and sent to Uganda in small batches. Susan Kataike, the ministry of works and transport spokesperson confirmed to Daily Monitor that the process of obtaining the plates was cumbersome owing to sanctions against Russia.
The plan now is for the contractor to build a factory in Uganda. But the Feb. 13 meeting heard that instead of the factory being built in Bugolobi in Kampala, the contractor was now targeting establishing a temporary plates-fitting centre in Kawempe, also in Kampala. But even this has not passed KCCA approval because of unclear construction timelines. The implementation team had also not visited the site to ascertain how it would work.
Museveni harasses Muhwezi
President Yoweri Museveni has pitched digital number plates as a solution for tracking criminals who use motorcycles and vehicles to commit terror attacks and disappear without a trace. On September 10, 2023, while passing out prisons’ officers, President Museveni said despite concerns, the project should go ahead. This led to a sense that the forces behind the project are too powerful for any intervention to stand in the project’s way.
So with the President breathing down his neck, Muhwezi had called the meeting to devise ways to clear any huddles undermining the project ahead of its new launch deadline of July 01.
But the first surprise for some of those in attendance was that Muhwezi was not at the meeting. Instead, it is Hajji Yunus Kakande, the Secretary, Office of the President, who chaired the meeting. Kakande said he was representing the minister.
Kakande said the purpose of the meeting was to hear issues raised by the contractor, get responses from government agencies, and ensure there are no further extensions of deadline beyond July 01. “No further excuses shall be entertained,” Kakande warned.
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