Why covering your number plate is illegal

The Traffic and Road Safety Act 1998 (Amendment) Act 2020 contains a lot of guiding information for motorists. One of the important caluses in there is embedded in Section 108 of the Act. Section 108 Article 4 (C) says a police officer in uniform may arrest without warrant the driver of any motor vehicle, trailer or engineering plant who commits an offence under this section within his or her view if the motor vehicle, trailer or engineering plant does not bear an identification plate.

“Where a person is convicted of aiding, abetting, concealing, procuring or inciting the commission of an offence under this section, and it is proved that they were present in the vehicle at the time of the offence of which they are convicted, the conviction shall, for the purposes of the provisions of this Act relating to disqualification from holding or obtaining a driving licence, be taken to be in respect of an offence in connection with the driving of a motor vehicle, trailer or engineering plant,” the section partly reads.

Fine

To understand the above section better, one should note that concealing your number or identification plate, which is also equivalent to not having a number plate, involves acts such as covering it with promotional materials or wedding stickers. There are also motorists who conceal their identification plates with foodstuff such as fish, especially when travelling from upcountry, as well as those who cover their number plates out of impunity. 

Micheal Kananura, the public relations officer of the traffic directorate, says permitting the use on the road of a motor vehicle, trailer or engineering plant whose registration plates or license is obscured or indistinguishable, attracts a penalty of Shs40,000. This also applies to motorcycles whose number plates are fixed in a way that they cannot be seen easily.

Kananura clarifies that if you have a wedding and you wish to cover the number plates, you are expected to use the wedding stickers to cover the number plates for only a short period of time and remove them before dawn. It still remains a traffic offence, only that you cannot be arrested on your wedding day.

“It is illegal to drive a car with covered or obstructed number plates since a number plate serves as an identity card for any vehicle on the road. Besides, some vehicles are used in committing crimes such as robberies or traffic offences, where a motorist could have been involved in a hit and run road crash and they remove or cover the number plate to avoid being arrested or tracked,” Kananura explains. 

Driving without number plates

In the early morning of July 12, 2023, a traffic police officer on duty intercepted a Mercedes Benz GLE Coupe at Aga Khan Primary School parking yard on Old Gaddafi Road with a female motorist. Her car did not have a number plate. On interrogation, the motorist reportedly told the police officer that the car belonged to one of the many owned by her husband, before she drove away.

This, Winstone Katushabe, the commissioner transport regulation and safety at the Ministry of Works and Transport, says is high level impunity where motorists understand what they are expected of but instead choose to disrespect the law.

“If you deliberately drive a car without number plates, it will be impounded at the owner’s cost. Some people buy cars and are given number plates but choose not to display them while others just remove and keep them in the cars or in their homes,” Katushabe says. 

Katushabe adds that it is everyone’s responsibility to report or take pictures of such cars since these could be used to commit crimes such as kidnap or hit and run incidents.

Stolen number plates

On two occassions, in December 2022 and 2023 towards the Christmas holidays, thieves accessed Irene Namayanja’s premises in Kanyanya, a Kampala City suburb and stole the number plates off the cars that were parked inside the perimeter wall. In 2022, Namayanja searched in the bushes outside her home where she luckily found the number plates that had been covered with soil. However, in 2023, her search did not yield any results. 

“I reported to police to get a reference number that I used to run an advert in the newspapers to process for a new number plate. Two weeks elapsed before I could find the stolen number plates and during this time, I would use a police reference letter as my permission to drive,” Namayanja recalls.

Kananura and Katushabe warn that ignorance of the law in regard to disregard of the law governing number plate use is no defence. Your number plate should be clearly displayed and visible at all times regardless of whether you are driving a private, government or organisation vehicle.