Thieves use South Sudan number plates to steal cars, police say

SOROTI. Police have revealed that thieves are using South Sudan number plates to steal Ugandan vehicles to feed the Kenya black market.

Mr Michael Odongo, the regional police spokesperson for East Kyoga, said thieves have taken advantage of the roaming vehicles from South Sudan to disguise stolen Ugandan cars with fake South Sudan number plates that they sell to Kenya.

He said a resident of Mbale was arrested on the Tororo-Busia highway on his way to Kenya on Tuesday morning, with a vehicle stolen from Soroti the night before.“When thieves steal cars from Uganda, they replace the number plates with those of South Sudan before they set off to Kenya,” he explained.

“We have decided to start impounding all vehicles bearing South Sudan number plates for verification, because we have realised that most of those vehicles are stolen from Ugandan citizens,” Mr Odongo said.

He said such trickery has been making their operations difficult.Mr Odongo said this following the fresh incidents of car theft in Soroti where three cases have been registered in only one week.He said the car that was stolen that night belonged to Mr David Omeke, a resident of Nakatunya Ward, Western Division in Soroti Municipality.

“This vehicle was stolen at Mr Omeke’s of residence in Nakatunya before it was intercepted on Tuesday morning in Tororo,” he said. One of the officers working with The Flying Squad department in East Kyoga said a premio in a good mechanical condition is sold in the Kenyan black market at Shs1.5 million and a Subaru at Shs4 million only.