Kenya Hit With Acute Shortage of Digital Number Plates Some Resorts To Printing Plates On Paper

Kenya is in the grip of its worst number plate crisis in recent memory, with a staggering backlog of more than 70,000 unissued plates leaving thousands of vehicle owners, motorcycle riders, and tuk-tuk operators stranded — and some brazenly flouting the law by printing makeshift plates on plain paper.

The crisis, which has paralysed vehicle sales, blocked bank financing and choked the livelihoods of boda boda operators across the country, is being blamed squarely on the National Treasury’s chronic delays in releasing funds to the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA), leaving the state agency unable to pay its suppliers.

The scale of the breakdown is alarming. Motorcycle assemblers say the deficit in boda boda plates alone has ballooned to 51,000 units, while the Kenya Motor Industry Association (KMI) places the shortfall for new motor vehicles at 7,000. Tuk-tuk assemblers report a further 750 units outstanding. The cumulative crisis cuts across every segment of Kenya’s transport economy.

“Payment for number plates is through eCitizen, but the National Treasury then delays in funding NTSA which is late to pay suppliers,” one dealer, who asked not to be named. “We are the ones left holding the bill.”

NTSA, which has a long history of stonewalling the press on this issue, had not responded to queries as of press time. Industry insiders say sources within the authority have privately confirmed that the root cause is unpaid debts to suppliers — a damning indictment of government fiscal management.

The situation has become so desperate that some motorcycle riders have taken to writing their registration details on paper and displaying them where the official plate should be affixed. The practice is not only alarming but illegal, and it exposes those riders to serious criminal sanction.

Under the Traffic Act, any person who fails to properly affix a government-issued number plate commits an offence punishable by a fine of up to Sh300,000, imprisonment of up to 12 months, or both. Yet with no plates to collect, desperate riders say they have no choice.

Dealers have meanwhile been forced to lean heavily on Kenya Dealers (KD) number plates as a stopgap. These temporary plates — meant only for vehicles being ferried from the port of Mombasa or offered for test drives — are valid solely between 6am and 6pm, creating a logistical nightmare for businesses that operate around the clock.

A Recurring Scandal That Will Not Go Away

What makes the current crisis especially damaging is that it is not new. Kenya has now suffered number plate shortages in August 2024, April 2025, November 2025, and again now in February 2026 — a pattern that points not to isolated supply hiccups but to a structural failure at the heart of government procurement.

In May 2025, NTSA Board Chairperson Khatib Mwashetani held a press briefing to declare the problem resolved, with Director General George Njao pledging the authority was “back on track.” By November 2025, the shortage had returned, with dealers reporting that plates for the KDV-W, X, Y and Z series had simply stopped coming. The assurances rang hollow.

“There is an industry outcry and it is a big one,” Charles Munyori, Secretary-General of the Kenya Auto Bazaar Association (KABA), said during the November flare-up. “You cannot do bank transfers for the cars without a number plate. These delays hit us hard, especially when buyers have already paid.”

The production of Kenya’s number plates is carried out at Kamiti Maximum Security Prison, a facility that reportedly has the capacity to produce only around 1,000 plates per day. That modest output, already strained by Kenya’s surging vehicle registrations — which jumped 25 percent to 75,059 in the first eight months of 2025 alone — has been repeatedly derailed by what insiders describe as the government’s failure to pay the prison’s commercial department on time.

The consequences extend far beyond simple inconvenience. Kenya’s banking sector, which finances the majority of vehicle purchases in a market where high-value transactions rarely go through in cash, insists on fully registered vehicles before advancing loans. With plates stuck in bureaucratic limbo, buyers who have already committed funds find themselves in financial suspension, unable to take delivery of their purchases.

For boda boda riders, the impact is even more visceral. Motorcycles are the economic lifeline of millions of Kenyans, ferrying workers, delivering goods and connecting communities across the country. The plate backlog — now frozen at the KMGV/C production series — has left thousands of newly assembled bikes sitting idle, unable to legally hit the road, stripping riders of their only source of income.

The irony is not lost on industry observers. Kenya spent years rolling out its new generation of digital number plates, complete with QR codes, holograms, unique front-and-back NTSA serial numbers and an embossed Kenyan flag. The plates were celebrated as a security upgrade that would curb plate cloning and integrate with revenue collection systems.

Yet the very agency tasked with delivering this innovation cannot maintain a consistent supply. A digital plate for a motor vehicle costs Sh3,050, while motorcycle plates go for Sh1,550 — fees that Kenyans have been paying faithfully through the eCitizen portal, only to find themselves waiting indefinitely.

Critics argue that the government is, in effect, collecting revenue from citizens for a service it is refusing to render — a situation they describe as tantamount to a breach of public trust.

Vehicle dealers, motorcycle assemblers and transport operators are now calling on the National Treasury and the Ministry of Transport to treat the crisis as a national emergency, ringfence dedicated funding for number plate production, and hold NTSA publicly accountable for the recurring breakdown.

“This is not a new problem. It is the same problem, over and over again,” one industry veteran said. “And every time it happens, NTSA goes silent, makes promises it cannot keep, and leaves Kenyans to suffer the consequences.”

With tens of thousands of unregistered vehicles on the roads, a paralysed second-hand car market and boda boda riders risking arrest to put food on their tables, Kenya’s number plate crisis has moved well beyond a supply chain inconvenience. It is, at its core, a governance failure — one that ordinary Kenyans are paying for, literally and figuratively.