By Swift Reporter
Minister for Water and Environment Maj Gen Kahinda Otafiire has questioned the value of Uganda’s US$25 million Intelligent Transport Monitoring System (ITMS), arguing that the project delivered limited benefits beyond the police’s existing surveillance infrastructure.
Otafiire, the former Minister for Internal Affairs, made the remarks on Tuesday, October 13, 2026, while appearing before Parliament’s Committee on Physical Infrastructure, chaired by Mwine Mpaka, to discuss concerns surrounding the costly technology project.
He told the committee that the Uganda Police Force was not involved in the procurement process and raised questions about the compatibility, reliability and overall effectiveness of the technology introduced under the project.
According to Otafiire, he initially resisted the implementation of the system because the technology sourced from Russia was incompatible with the Chinese technology used in cameras that had already been installed by police.
He said he eventually faced pressure to allow the project to proceed despite his reservations.
Otafiire also questioned the origins of the equipment, saying information obtained during due diligence suggested that the system was assembled using components manufactured by different companies.
His experience before leaving the Ministry of Internal Affairs, he said, indicated that the technology functioned more like a fleet-management and tracking service than the advanced transport-monitoring system Uganda had been promised.
To demonstrate what he considered a major limitation, Otafiire recounted an experiment in which number plates were removed from a vehicle and taken to his office on Jinja Road while the vehicle remained in Kololo.
He said the system continued to indicate that the vehicle was in Kololo, raising questions about whether it could independently track a vehicle or merely identify the location of an associated tracking device.
“So what they are selling to us is a tracking system. That is all,” Otafiire told the committee.
He challenged lawmakers to establish whether the US$25 million investment represented value for money, particularly given the questions surrounding the technology’s capabilities.
The minister also questioned why Uganda abandoned local manufacturers capable of producing number plates in favour of imported alternatives.
“If Wavamuno, who is a Ugandan, was making number plates and employing our people, why did we abandon Wavamuno and others who are making number plates here to go and import number plates when they could be made here and employ our people?” he asked.
His concerns centred on the need to protect public resources, support local industries and ensure that government technology contracts deliver measurable benefits.
However, former Works Minister Gen. (Rtd) Katumba Wamala offered a contrasting account, saying he had personally benefited from police surveillance and vehicle-tracking capabilities.
Katumba recalled the 2021 gun attack in Kampala in which he was targeted, saying police had managed to trace individuals suspected of involvement in the attack and that he later saw them in court.
“So for me, I am a beneficiary of the system which the police is operating,” he said.
He nevertheless acknowledged that his assessment could be limited because he had personally benefited from the system whose effectiveness was under discussion.
Katumba also said he could not establish whether improvements introduced by Global Security were connected to the technology that had helped police trace those involved in the attack.
In response, Otafiire insisted that the police’s existing camera network and the ITMS project were separate systems whose performance should not be confused.
“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 facility in Naguru, but even information technology experts he consulted could not clearly explain what the equipment was doing.
Bukoto County Central MP Richard Sebamala called for closer scrutiny of the project’s pricing model, particularly the different charges imposed on existing and newly registered vehicles despite what he described as similar service packages.
Deputy committee chairperson William Tiyo warned that Uganda risked wasting public funds by adopting foreign technologies without adequately assessing their suitability, cost and compatibility with existing systems.
Tiyo described the original contract with Joint Stock as “a total fiasco, a total failure”, arguing that a proposed additional investment of US$158 million was intended to address shortcomings in the initial project.
The committee’s deliberations have brought renewed attention to questions of procurement transparency, technological accountability and value for money in government projects.
The central issue remains whether the ITMS investment has delivered the advanced transport-monitoring capabilities promised and whether any further expenditure can be justified without a clear demonstration of its effectiveness.
The concerns raised by the legislators and former ministers underscore the importance of independent technical assessments, transparent procurement processes and evidence-based decisions before additional public funds are committed.