
Uganda’s Digital Number Plate Initiative: A Game-Changer or Another Costly Misstep?
By Amiri Wabusimba. Ugandan government’s rollout of digital number plates is hailed as a modern solution to the country’s growing vehicle-related crime rates. Promising enhanced security and better traffic management, the initiative aims to introduce a centralized system for vehicle tracking. However, the effectiveness of this new technology remains uncertain, with concerns emerging over its reliability, implementation, and potential loopholes that criminals could exploit.
One of the most pressing concerns is how digital number plates compare to well-established private vehicle tracking systems. Unlike privately installed GPS trackers, which are discreetly embedded within vehicles and powered by robust energy sources, digital plates rely on external placement, making them vulnerable to tampering. The question remains: will these new plates provide the same level of security and efficiency, or are they simply an additional bureaucratic measure with limited practical application?
In Uganda, privately run vehicle tracking services have demonstrated significant success in recovering stolen vehicles and preventing crime. Advanced GPS technology allows for real-time monitoring, even in remote areas, ensuring that a vehicle remains traceable regardless of attempts to remove its identifiers. In contrast, digital number plates are externally attached, making them susceptible to theft or removal. If a criminal removes the plate, will law enforcement still be able to track the vehicle effectively?
A major concern among community is the ease with which digital plates can be removed or swapped. Uganda has a history of criminals stealing or altering number plates to evade the law. If the digital plates do not come with built-in anti-tampering mechanisms, such as real-time alerts when they are removed, their effectiveness in crime prevention could be severely compromised.Additionally, technical questions remain. Will the plates be integrated with a centralized, foolproof monitoring system capable of detecting unauthorized interference in real time? If a vehicle’s plate is altered, will it trigger an immediate alert, or will law enforcement only discover the issue after a crime has already occurred? Without a reliable failsafe, digital plates could suffer from the same inefficiencies that have plagued Uganda’s CCTV surveillance network.
Several countries have successfully implemented digital number plate initiatives, with promising results. In the United Arab Emirates, smart plates with built-in tracking features provide real-time location data, detect traffic violations, and automatically alert authorities to suspicious activity. In South Africa, the Automated Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) system was instrumental in the swift arrest of criminals involved in the 2007 assassination of reggae icon Lucky Dube. Authorities were able to track the getaway vehicle within minutes, demonstrating the life-saving potential of well-implemented technology.
However, Uganda’s previous experience with large-scale security technology raises doubts about whether the country is ready for such a system. The national CCTV surveillance project, despite its promise, has suffered from poor maintenance, faulty equipment, and inadequate monitoring. High-profile crimes continue to occur, often with little assistance from the very system designed to prevent them. Will digital number plates follow the same path, or can Uganda learn from past mistakes to build a truly effective solution?
For Uganda’s digital number plate initiative to be successful, it must be more than just a standalone technology it needs to be part of a well-integrated, multi-layered security strategy. Authorities should consider a hybrid approach that combines digital plates with hidden GPS tracking, biometric security features, and anti-tampering sensors. This would create a more resilient system capable of detecting and preventing criminal activities in real time.
Moreover, investment in proper infrastructure, routine system upgrades, and comprehensive law enforcement training will be essential to ensuring that digital plates achieve their intended purpose. If implemented correctly, this initiative has the potential to transform road security, curb vehicle-related crimes, and restore public confidence in Uganda’s ability to leverage technology for national safety.
As Uganda prepares for the full rollout full of digital number plates, one critical question remains: will this system be a groundbreaking innovation or just another costly government project destined to fail? Only time and the effectiveness of its implementation will tell.
Amiri Wabusimba is a diplomatic Scholar, Journalist, political analyst and Human Right activist. Tel: +56775103895 email: [email protected].
Uganda’s Digital Number Plate Initiative: A Game-Changer or Another Costly Misstep?
News
Fast-Rising DJ & Musician, Deejay Giovanni, Drops “Thank You Lord”

Uganda’s vibrant gospel music scene has a new anthem as Deejay Giovanni releases his latest song, Thank You Lord. Known for his unique blend of Christian rap and deejaying, Giovanni is quickly becoming a household name in East Africa’s music industry.
The 27-year-old artist, born on October 9, 1996, burst onto the scene three years ago with Kusaba, a hit that resonated with many and received massive airplay across Uganda and the East African region. His latest track, Thank You Lord, is deeply personal, drawn from his own experiences growing up as a ghetto child in Nansana. Through his music, he aims to inspire and give hope to those facing similar struggles.
Giovanni describes himself as a Christian artist committed to spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ through his music and DJ mixes. His passion for uplifting others and preaching through rap has set him apart in Uganda’s gospel music landscape.
With Thank You Lord, Deejay Giovanni continues his mission of using music as a tool for hope, faith, and gratitude. The song is expected to make waves among gospel lovers and beyond, cementing his place as one of Uganda’s rising gospel stars.
The singer Is Married to Salt Tv’s Presenter Dorah Jimmy who have been together for a while before solidifying their romantic relationship by welcoming their bundle of joy last year.
The couple held their colorful customary “Kukyala and kwanjula” ceremonies respectively ,
Keep an eye on Deejay Giovanni as he continues to shape the future of gospel music in Uganda!
Fast-Rising DJ & Musician, Deejay Giovanni, Drops “Thank You Lord”
News
USAID : The Wealthiest MAN vs. The World’s Poorest Children

In Kristof’s column today, he wrote that “to anyone with a heart, it’s about children’s lives and our own security, and what’s unfolding is sickening.”
The foreign aid cutbacks jeopardize people’s lives worldwide, including the 20 million women, children and LGBTQ people receiving HIV-fighting antiretroviral medications that are funded by the nation’s foreign aid agency, USAID.
The world’s richest man is boasting about destroying the United States Agency for International Development, which saves the lives of the world’s poorest children, saying he shoved it “into the wood chipper.”
By my calculations, Elon Musk probably has a net worth greater than that of the poorest billion people on Earth. Just since Donald Trump’s election, Musk’s personal net worth has grown by far more than the entire annual budget of U.S.A.I.D., which in any case accounts for less than 1 percent of the federal budget. It’s callous for gleeful billionaires like Musk and President Trump to cut children off from medicine, but, as President John F. Kennedy pointed out when he proposed the creation of the agency in 1961, it’s also myopic.
Cutting aid, Kennedy noted, “would be disastrous and, in the long run, more expensive.” He added: “Our own security would be endangered and our prosperity imperiled.”
Perhaps that’s why Russia has praised Trump’s move.
In contrast with Kennedy, the Trump administration braids together cruelty, ignorance and shortsightedness, and that combination seems particularly evident in its assault on American humanitarian assistance.
One person has already died of bird flu in the United States, and there is growing concern of a pandemic — yet Trump’s suspension of foreign aid has interrupted bird flu surveillance in 49 countries, according to the Global Health Council, a U.S.-based nonprofit.
Remember the American panic over the Ebola outbreak in West Africa in 2014? (Trump was particularly hysterical back then.) In the end, an Ebola pandemic was averted — in part because of U.S.A.I.D.’s work in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
As it happens, another Ebola outbreak has just been reported in Uganda, with 234 contacts identified so far. U.S.A.I.D. would normally help suppress it — but now Trump and Musk have put it out of commission.
Another hemorrhagic fever, called Marburg virus, broke out in Tanzania last month. Aid workers are rushing to contain the virus, but again Trump has made the United States AWOL, leaving the world a little more vulnerable.
A disclosure: In 2012, U.S.A.I.D. made some games for India and Africa based on a book my wife and I wrote, “Half the Sky.” U.S.A.I.D. did not pay us anything for this, and the games did a good job promoting deworming, girls’ education and safe pregnancy.
I’ve seen U.S.A.I.D. operate all over the world, and it’s a mixed picture. It is fair to complain that U.S.A.I.D. is endlessly bureaucratic and that too much of the aid goes to so-called Beltway bandit American contractors rather than to needy people abroad.
Yet there’s no basis for the White House mythology that U.S.A.I.D. is an enclave of woke waste, reflected in Trump’s claim that it spent about “$100 million on condoms to Hamas” (he doubled his previous claim of $50 million).
Hmm. Male condoms cost the U.S. government 3.3 cents each, so that would be three billion condoms. By my calculation, for Hamas to use up that many condoms in a year, each fighter would have to have sex 325 times a day, every day.
That might wipe out Hamas as a fighting force more effectively than Israeli bombardment.
In any case, the actual amount of U.S. assistance spent on condoms for Gaza in recent years appears to have been not $100 million but $0.
Trump’s policies are as reckless as his rhetoric. I’d welcome some restructuring of U.S.A.I.D. But this isn’t restructuring but demolition — a blow to our values and interests alike.
The USAID Memorial Wall, which listed the names of 99 USAID employees killed in the line of duty.
These are the names of the 99 USAID employees killed in the line of duty as of May 2024. (Photo courtesy of The Foreign Service Journal)
Musk lambasted U.S.A.I.D. as “a criminal organization.” In fact, many of its employees have risked their lives in the best tradition of public service. The U.S.A.I.D. Memorial Wall honors 99 people killed while working for the agency in places such as Sudan, Haiti, Afghanistan and Ethiopia.
I’ve seen genuine improvements in U.S.A.I.D. over the years. Its public-private partnership to tackle lead poisoning, announced last year, was a model of American leadership. And so from my travels, this is what U.S.A.I.D. has come to mean to me:
I’ve seen women and girls with obstetric fistula, a horrific childbirth injury, get a $600 surgery that gives them back their lives — and this is something that U.S.A.I.D. supports.
I’ve seen men humiliated by elephantiasis and grotesquely enlarged scrotums, occasionally requiring a wheelbarrow to support their organs as they walk. And U.S.A.I.D. has fought this disease and made it less common.
I’ve seen children dying of malaria (and I’ve had malaria), and I’ve seen U.S.A.I.D. help achieve major strides against the disease over the last two decades.
I’ve seen southern Africa ravaged by AIDS. And then President George W. Bush’s landmark program against AIDS, called PEPFAR and implemented in part through U.S.A.I.D., transformed the landscape. I saw coffin makers in Lesotho and Malawi grumble that their business was collapsing because far fewer people were dying. PEPFAR has saved 26 million lives so far. (In the coming months, I’ll see if I can calculate how many lives are lost to Trump’s cuts in aid.)
I’ve seen the suffering of communities where people in middle age routinely go blind from trachoma, river blindness or cataracts — and the transformation when U.S.A.I.D. helps prevent such blindness.
Trump scoffed that U.S.A.I.D. was “run by radical lunatics.” Is it radical lunacy to try to save children’s lives? To promote literacy for girls? To fight blindness?
If this is woke, what about the evangelical Christians in International Justice Mission, which, with U.S.A.I.D. support, has done outstanding work battling sex trafficking of children in Cambodia and the Philippines? Does Trump believe that rescuing children from rape is a radical lunatic cause?
Trump’s moves are of uncertain legality, not least because U.S.A.I.D. was established by Congress, but the outcomes are indisputable. Around the world children are already missing health care and food because of the assault on the agency that Kennedy founded to uphold our values and protect our interests.
To billionaires in the White House, it may seem like a game. But to anyone with a heart, it’s about children’s lives and our own security, and what’s unfolding is sickening.
News
Groundbreaking Queer Film ‘Ìfé’ Returns with Highly Anticipated Sequel

Pamela Adie, a renowned Nigerian activist, filmmaker, and director, announced the film on X (formerly Twitter), calling the sequel “magic.” The film is currently in production and is set for release in 2025.
Poster for Ìfé – The Sequel. (Courtesy Pamela Adie via X)
Unlike the typical Nollywood portrayal of same-sex relationships, Ìfé broke barriers with its authentic depiction of love, struggles, and triumphs within Nigeria’s queer community. The first film was hailed in international headlines for its raw honesty, capturing the experiences of women who love other women in a society where such narratives are often silenced or misunderstood.
The sequel continues the story of Ìfé, played by Uzoamaka Aniunoh, and Adaora, played by Gbubemi Ejeye. While their relationship appears perfect on the surface, unresolved issues from their past resurface after a pivotal encounter, threatening their bond. The film delves into themes of love, identity, family expectations, and the courage required to pursue happiness and self-discovery.
Joining the cast are other notable names, including Ozzy Agu, Najite Dede, Binta Ayo Mogaji, Sonny McDon, Amara Nnanna, Adunolaoluwa Osilowo, and Grace Coker, promising a stellar ensemble performance.
“I watched Ìfé (the short film), and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I’m definitely looking forward to seeing the sequel. I love the poster already!” wrote one commenter on X.
In a country where LGBTQ+ representation in the media remains limited and often controversial, Ìfé stands out as a beacon of visibility and empowerment. Its first installment defied societal norms and sparked important conversations about love and identity. With the sequel, Pamela Adie continues her mission to tell stories that resonate with Nigeria’s queer community while challenging stereotypes and advocating for acceptance.
The anticipation for Ìfé – The Sequel is palpable, with many eager to see how Ìfé and Adaora’s journey unfolds. As queer film audiences count down to 2025, the film is already making waves, promising not just entertainment but a deeper reflection on love, courage, and the pursuit of authenticity in the face of adversity.
Groundbreaking Queer Film ‘Ìfé’ Returns with Highly Anticipated Sequel