Court suspends issuance of digital IDs

By Peter Ochieng

The High Court in Milimani, Nairobi has suspended registration and issuance of new digital Identification Cards (IDs).

Justice John Chigiti issued the ruling, directing the government to halt the registration process that was to kick off this month. The petition was filed civil societies organizations, including Katiba Institute, Nubian Rights Forum, Kenya Human Rights Commission and Defenders Coalition.

They sought for prayers to stop the process arguing that it had not gone through adequate public participation and data protection framework, therefore undermining its legality.

“The leave granted by the court operates as a stay restraining implementation or further implementation by any person of the respondents’ 1st November 2023 decision to roll out or pilot Maisha Namba including the digital card, digital ID, unique personal identifier, and a national master population register before and without a data protection impact assessment per section 31 of the data protection Act,” Justice Chigiti ordered.

Maisha Namba is being championed by president William Ruto’s administration. It is meant to replace the Huduma Namba which was rolled out and failed spectacularly under the tenure of retired president Uhuru Kenyatta.

Speaking in June, President Ruto revealed that the country lost Sh15 billion as the Kenyatta administration pushed to launch the Huduma Namba project.

"That Huduma Namba was a complete fraud because we lost almost Sh15 billion and got very little out of it," he said.

"We must demonstrate in the next 90 days that it is possible for us to have a digital ID without spending Sh15 billion, and without defrauding the people of Kenya," Ruto said of Maisha Namba.

The Huduma Namba was supposed to be a unique and permanent personal Identification (ID) Number randomly assigned to every resident individual at birth, or upon registration/enrolment and would only expire or be retired upon the death of the individual.