As you travel, you may have noticed that some vehicles have rectangular number plates on the truck instead of the accustomed square-shaped designs.
This led to the belief that the plates, also referred to as oblong license plates are only given to special cars.
Contrary to the belief, all motorists can have rectangular-shaped plates. Square plates are common in most vehicles because of the car design.
Most car manufacturers have a square-shaped mounting platform for the registration plates, explaining why they cannot use rectangular licenses.
Given that most cars in Kenya are made in Japan, the vehicles have a square shape mounting platform, as is the common practice in the Asian country.
However, in recent years various manufacturers, especially saloon cars are adopting the rectangular mounting platform.
In some instances, motorists have been forced to cut their square plates to create rectangular-shaped plates.
However, this act is discouraged by the National Transport and Safety Authority(NTSA).
NTSA recommends motorists apply for the oblong number plates if they have a rectangular mounting platform.
Application for number plates is done through the NTSA TIMS platform, where motorist submit their details.
As per NTSA timelines, registration plates are issued two days after the application.