When Evidence Gets Lost in the Noise: What is Parliament really investigating in Uganda’s Digital Number Plate Project?

What the report says

Parliament in Uganda is continuing hearings into delays and costs in the country’s Digital Number Plate Project, with the Committee on Physical Infrastructure chaired by Mwine Mpaka examining the scheme in Kampala. The Independent Uganda’s commentary says the inquiry has increasingly focused on the price and supply of the plates, while the project itself is a broader vehicle security system tied to police operations, tracking technology and data management.

According to the article, Police Director of ICT AIGP Felix Baryamwisaki told MPs that 337 of 375 stolen motor vehicles had been recovered, a figure the publication says was also reflected in Parliament’s own records. MPs later visited the police command centre at Naguru and tested the system using their own vehicle registration numbers. The article says the vehicles were identified and tracked, and that committee members accepted that cars and motorcycles could be monitored through the system, although concerns remain about motorcycle recovery and police response times.

The piece argues that the digital number plate should be understood as only the visible part of a larger infrastructure that includes trackers, SIM chips, Bluetooth beacons and links to police command systems. It also notes that earlier production backlogs were reported cleared in August, and that ministry data showed registration and fitment times falling from 19 days in December 2025 to two days by September 2026. More broadly, the commentary says the project raises questions about security, data protection and Uganda’s ability to manage the system over time.