This report details how Anthony Macharia Waweru discovered that the Nissan Dualis he bought in November 2016 had a duplicate number plate after being asked to report to the Flying Squad offices in Nairobi.
Mr Waweru said he first became uneasy after noticing, on two separate occasions, people who appeared to be police officers trailing him around Nakuru town as he went about his business. He did not know what to do at the time, but the matter escalated when an officer phoned and told him to present himself in Nairobi so investigators could determine which number plate was genuine.
He said the call left him frightened and unsure whether he should continue driving the vehicle. At the Flying Squad yard, officers showed him a Toyota Harrier carrying the same registration number as his car.
Investigators later established that the Toyota Harrier had been imported from Japan in 2016 and was meant for South Sudan. Flying Squad head Musa Yego said the vehicle was not registered in Kenya and should not have entered the local market because it was older than the recommended age limit when it was brought in.
Mr Yego said the Harrier had a fake number plate and that investigators suspected the owner, who had been using it for car hire, made the plate soon after the vehicle landed in the country. He also warned buyers to verify vehicle details through registered dealers before paying for any car.
According to him, conmen have also found ways into the NTSA portal, making it easier to pull vehicle details and produce fake logbooks. He said that creates a serious risk for genuine owners, who can be mistaken for suspects if the other vehicle is later linked to a crime.
“Since anyone can access car details, it is easy for the con men to extract the same and make fake logbooks. The danger in this is that in case the other vehicle is involved in a crime, chances of the genuine owner being mistaken or sought by law enforcers are very high.
“These cases are increasing. Cars are being stolen and sold to unsuspecting Kenyans. Yards are full of brokers and they keep driving stolen cars to these yards and selling them without detection,” he said.
Mr Yego said the Directorate of Criminal Investigations handles about 10 cases of fake and duplicated number plates every month. He said the cases mostly involve illegally smuggled vehicles, stolen vehicles and cars used by criminals.
He urged the public to report suspicious plates, including any number plate that resembles their own. He added that Kenya remains vulnerable because many neighbouring countries depend on Mombasa Port for imports.
Flying Squad detectives, he said, now use phone applications that can generate a vehicle’s colour, year of manufacture, chassis number, make and other key details once a number plate is entered.
