Otafiire Tells Parliament How He Opposed Digital Number Plates Project

What the report says

Water and Environment Minister Kahinda Otafiire told Parliament that he opposed the Intelligent Transport Monitoring System, or ITMS, project from the start because he believed the proposed digital number plates technology might not work with Uganda’s existing police surveillance systems. Speaking before the Committee on Physical Infrastructure, he said key security agencies had not been part of the early negotiations and later consultations with police and experts reinforced his doubts about the system’s feasibility.

According to Nile Post, Otafiire said he sought views from Makerere University, police officials and counterparts in Kenya before the project moved ahead. He told lawmakers that his concerns included whether the equipment could integrate with the country’s current infrastructure and whether the technology being offered was genuinely manufactured as claimed. He also raised questions about the contractor’s account of the equipment’s origin and production.

The minister said the project was eventually implemented despite those objections, but later police assessments suggested the installed equipment functioned more like a fleet-management tool than the broader transport-monitoring system originally presented. He added that some police comparisons indicated the technology was less advanced than what is used in commercial ride-hailing services.

The testimony adds to ongoing parliamentary scrutiny of the ITMS project, which has drawn questions about procurement, costs, local manufacturing commitments and whether the public got the system promised. More broadly, the case highlights concerns about how major security and transport technology projects are vetted before public money is committed.