Personalized-plate swag!

Everyone wants a piece of that personalized-plate swag!

This change of heart comes just four months after the police launched a nationwide crackdown on cars with personalized plates, owners claimed that they had paid exorbitant fees to obtain the plates.

The Traffic Department has frequently cited Section 12 of the Traffic Act to decline requests for personalized 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 license 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 color on which is inscribed the identification mark of the vehicle or of the general dealer’s license.”

Now all attention seeking owners of flashy cars can now display their names on their vehicles legally! This comes after section 12 of the Traffic Act got legal force through a Kenya Gazette notice signed by the transport Minister Amos Kimunya.

New rule states:

• A person may apply to the Registrar of Motor Vehicles to be issued with personalized 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 personalized plates from the Registrar of Motor Vehicles. Lost or defaced ones will be replaced at Shs 50,000.
• 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.

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

Despite often announcing ‘their’ entry and exit or having dark tinted windows and speeding at ridiculous speeds. This is the irony of it all.