Russian company to provide Vehicle Digital Trackers

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The government has signed a contract with a Russian Company to provide digital trackers to all vehicles in the country.

At a ceremony held on Friday at the Office of the President in Kampala, Waiswa Bageya the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Works and Transport and Yunus Kakande his counterpart in the office of the President signed on behalf of the government while Ivan Sukraban, the Chief Executive Officer of Joint Stock Company, a Russian digital security company signed on its behalf.

According to Kakande, the President instituted an inter-ministerial committee that for the last four months has been working on identifying and the right company to carry out the task.

Kakande said that President Yoweri Museveni directed that all vehicles and motorcycles be fitted with tracking devices to help deal with criminals who he said use vehicles and motorcycles to kill people and then disappear without a trace. Museveni made similar comments in the aftermath of the assassination attempt on the life of Gen Edward Katumba Wamala in June.

Kakande said that the Russian company is going to run the project for two years and recoup their investment and then hand it over to the government of Uganda to manage.

Speaking at the same ceremony, Maj Gen. Jim Muhwezi the Minister of Security who witnessed the signing of the contract assured the country that the only purpose for which the government is going to track vehicles is to deal with insecurity. He added that they have no intention of interfering in the privacy of citizens. When challenged on the law they are basing on Muhwezi said whatever they are doing was embraced by government technocrats like the Solicitor General.

He added that those who believe that the government is acting outside the law, have the right to challenge it in court.

On when the project is expected to start and how much money car and motorcycle owners are going to be paying, Muhwezi said the committee will be deciding on these details in the coming days.

“The investor is going to come on the ground to establish centres in the different parts of the country working with Luwero Industries to start and then the public will be informed when each vehicle will be called to be registered to get new number plates with monitoring systems.

The payment will also be communicated because always registration of vehicles is not free of charge; anybody who owns a vehicle will meet that charge,” Muhwezi said.

The inter-ministerial committee has members from the Office of the President, Ministry of Internal Affair, Ministry of Defense, Ministry of Works and Transport, Ministry of Security, Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs, Kampala Capital City Authority, Luwero Industries, Uganda People’s Defense Forces and the National Information Technology Authority-Uganda NITA-U.

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