Minister for Water and Environment, Maj Gen Kahinda Otafiire, has questioned the effectiveness and value of Uganda’s US$25 million Intelligent Transport Monitoring System (ITMS), telling Parliament that tests conducted on the system raised doubts about its ability to locate vehicles after their number plates are removed.
Otafiire, who previously served as Minister for Internal Affairs, made the remarks on Tuesday, 13 October 2026, while appearing before Parliament’s Committee on Physical Infrastructure chaired by Hon. Mwine Mpaka.
He said police was not involved in the procurement of the ITMS and revealed that he initially opposed the project because the technology introduced from Russia was incompatible with the Chinese technology already used in the country’s existing camera network.
Otafiire said he was eventually pressured to allow the project to proceed despite his reservations.
He also questioned the origin and reliability of the equipment, saying information obtained during due diligence indicated that the system was assembled using components manufactured by different companies.
According to Otafiire, tests conducted on the system raised concerns over whether it could actually track a vehicle independently of its number plate or tracking device.
He recounted an experiment in which number plates were removed from a vehicle and taken to his office on Jinja Road while the vehicle itself remained in Kololo. The system continued to indicate that the vehicle was in Kololo.
Otafiire said this demonstrated that the system was essentially tracking the device rather than the physical vehicle.
“So what they are selling to us is a tracking system. That is all,” he said.
He further suggested that Uber’s vehicle-hailing technology is more advanced than the system being used under the ITMS, arguing that the latter largely relies on trackers rather than sophisticated vehicle-monitoring capabilities.
Otafiire also drew a distinction between the ITMS and Uganda’s existing police camera network, saying the two systems should not be treated as one.
“There are two systems. There is the camera system. Its problems notwithstanding, it works,” he said.
He added that two computers had been installed at the police central monitoring centre in Naguru, but claimed that even technical experts he consulted could not explain what the equipment was doing.
Otafiire’s submission followed testimony from former Works Minister Gen (Rtd) Edward Katumba Wamala, who defended the surveillance system as an important security intervention.
Katumba said he had personally benefited from police vehicle-tracking and surveillance capabilities after investigators used the system to trace suspects linked to the 2021 attack against him.
He, however, acknowledged that his assessment could be limited because he was a beneficiary of the system and could not confirm whether improvements introduced by Global Security were directly connected to the ITMS.
Meanwhile, Bukoto County Central MP Richard Sebamala called for scrutiny of the pricing model, particularly the different charges imposed on existing and new vehicles for what he described as similar services.
Deputy Chairperson of the Committee, Hon. William Tiyo, warned that Uganda risked wasting public resources by adopting foreign technology without adequately assessing its suitability and cost.
He described the original contract with Joint Stock as a “total fiasco” and questioned a proposed US$158 million additional investment intended to address weaknesses in the initial project.
