TO CHECK issuance of forged yellow cards to transporters in the region, insurers want more security features incorporated into the cards by the Common Market for Southern and Eastern Africa (Comesa) authorities. 

Ugandan insurers say the Comesa yellow cards (which serve as vehicle insurance certificates) do not have enough security features, making them easy to forge. The cards have serial numbers and a round bronze Comesa stamp for security. 

"Our third party stickers are much better than these cards; they cannot be so easily forged," said the administrative secretary of the Uganda Insurers Association, David Serubiri. 

Mr Serubiri pointed out that, while Uganda's third party stickers are printed in Europe to ensure they have complex security features, the Comesa cards are printed by their national bureaux, which makes them easy to forge. The problem of forgeries is reportedly serious in Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda. 

The Kenyan government recently issued a warning against transporters on the use of fake Comesa cards.

The announcement said that the Kenyan government would invoke the law that requires that any invalid yellow card found on a motorist be confiscated. 

The Kenyan police will also impound the vehicles until a valid certificate is produced and the motorist will be charged according to the country's traffic regulations.

"Because several fake yellow cards have been discovered in the past few months, the local bureau of the yellow card (Kenya Reinsurance Corporation) in conjunction with the Kenya police will be conducting inspection of the yellow cards being used in the country in the month of April this year," said the announcement.

Godfrey Onyango, executive director of the Transit Transport Co-ordination Authority (TTCA) of the Northern Corridor based in Mombasa, said it was important for goods vehicles to have the cards and that the TTCA secretariat would convene meetings to discuss the issue. He however said that due to the widespread practice of faking the cards, Comesa members have agreed to redesign them with security features and a central printing point.

The official said member countries, in a meeting held in Mombasa last year, pleaded to be allowed finish their stock of cards before the Comesa secretariat gives the tender to a Zimbabwean firm. The cards were supposed to be redesigned in 2001 and are issued to licensed insurance companies by the respective national bureaus. The Comesa's office in charge of yellow cords is based in Lusaka, Zambia.
 

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