Uganda’s highly debated Digital Number Plate System faced an unscripted stress test this week when Members of Parliament challenged police IT operatives to track their official vehicles in real-time.
Arriving at the Police Command Centre in Naguru with four parliamentary vehicles, the Committee on Physical Infrastructure, led by Chairperson Mwine Mpaka, demanded a live demonstration of the system’s capabilities. The objective was straightforward: prove the surveillance network actually works outside of boardroom presentations.
Within minutes, police operatives successfully located the vehicles on the command center grids, projecting their live coordinates and movements to the committee. The demonstration provided undeniable, practical evidence that the tracking infrastructure is fully operational.
“Yes, indeed, we have established that cars and motorbikes can be tracked,” Mpaka conceded following the demonstration. “The issue of digital number plates is clearly important. One thing for sure is, the whole country needs the digital number plate system. Other than that, no one is against the project.”
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The live tracking test corroborated striking statistics presented by Police Director of ICT, AIGP Felix Baryamwisaki. According to police records, the tracking technology has already facilitated the recovery of 337 out of 375 stolen motor vehicles fitted with the plates—a staggering 90 percent recovery rate.
Inspector General of Police Abasi Byakagaba affirmed the technology’s impact on national security, stating, “As far as I am concerned, the system is working, and it is giving us solutions in our investigation.”
However, the parliamentary committee identified a critical operational bottleneck: the physical response time to system-generated alerts.
Currently, any attempt to tamper with a digital number plate immediately triggers an alert at the Naguru Command Centre, logging the exact time and live coordinates of the vehicle. The MPs pointed out that these digital alerts are useless without rapid, categorized physical police intervention. They stressed the need for a triage system that instantly distinguishes between a critical theft attempt and minor tampering.
To close this loophole, the Ministry of Works and Transport is currently developing an integrated communications database. This system will directly link the vehicle registration network with the owner’s personal telephone number and email, allowing Command Centre operatives to instantly contact motorists to verify if a tampering alert is authorized maintenance or an active crime.
Beyond tracking capabilities, the committee scrutinized the project’s economic footprint and data security.
Fears regarding the foreign storage of sensitive national tracking data were put to rest by Deputy Chief of Defence Forces and UPDF parliamentary representative, Samuel Okiding, who verified and expressed satisfaction that all surveillance data is securely stored within Uganda.
The Naguru command visit followed a rigorous inspection of the project’s local manufacturing hub. The production facility is currently operating with an 80 percent localization rate, churning out 2,500 number plate kits per day—equivalent to 50,000 kits a month. The assembly lines have created direct employment for over 300 Ugandans, while supporting an estimated 900 additional jobs across related supply chains.
Despite giving the technology a passing grade, the committee maintained that their oversight is far from over. Mpaka emphasized that Parliament will continue to heavily scrutinize the overall cost of the digital plates to the taxpayer, the contractor’s long-term production capacity, and the lingering delays in issuance that have frustrated motorists nationwide.
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