Dr Dennis Kinyua was driving along Thika Superhighway when he noticed a car that not only looked like his, but also possessed matching registration numbers overtake him.
A shocked Dr Kinyua tried to catch up with the car in vain and later opted to make a report at the Flying Squad headquarters in Nairobi.
“I was shocked to see a car that looks just like mine from the colors to the number plate. It is then that I opted to call the police who acted swiftly and arrested the occupants,” he said.
After weeks of searching, the other vehicle was nabbed in Juja. Both car owners were asked to drive their vehicles to the Flying Squad yard.
It is not clear for how long the two grey cars have been operating with duplicate number plates.
ROGUE CAR DEALERS
Nairobi News has learnt that rogue dealers in Nairobi are selling the cars with duplicate number plates to unsuspecting members of the public.
The plates are used illegally to mask a vehicle’s true identity and leaves the legitimate vehicle owner facing crimes that they never engaged in.
Dr Kinyua said that he has been having problems accessing the National Transport Safety Authority (NTSA) web portal just because someone somewhere similar details of his car.
He said he has visited NTSA headquarters severally to raise concern over the matter for almost a year now.
“I go there they make my portal and after a month or two I start facing similar problems of not being able to access the portal,” Dr Kinyua said.
Dr Kinyua seems not to be the only Kenyan suffering in silence as police believe that many cars have cloned number plates.
Police say that they have handled more than ten similar cases this year.
Last week, Mr Elias Shikuku an ex-police officer who sold a car from a police yard was arrested. Police say that he changed the number plates of the car from KBC to KBJ and had given information on how he managed to do it.
Last month, two cars a Toyota Harrier and Nissan Dualis were nabbed by Flying Squad officers for having similar number plates.
NOT REGISTERED
It later emerged that the Toyota Harrier is not registered in Kenya but in South Sudan. How it ended in the hands of the victim still remains mysterious.
Mr Musa Yego, the Flying Squad boss in Nairobi told the Nairobi News that investigations into the matter has kicked off. He said that his officers were able to nab the vehicles on Monday evening in Juja after a week search.
Both the car owners were then asked to drive the cars to the flying squad yard in Nairobi where the two cars are being held. It has emerged that the owner of the other car had bought the car from a rogue dealer who used Dr Kinyua’s documents to obtain a cloned registration number.
“That is how we ended up having two cars bearing the same registration numbers,” said Mr Yego.
The owner of the other car also has no genuine logbook, something she has never realised for the period she has been in possession of the car.
Mr Yego warned members of the public to always ensure that they check a car’s details before buying it.
He said that investigations will also involve grilling officials from the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) and NTSA.
“We have had an increase of such cases in the recent past and we are not going to rest until we arrest all those who are involved in this,” he said.
