The government last week launched the controversial Huduma Namba mass registration programme across the country with leaders making several claims exhorting the importance of the new registration process.
Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Interior Karanja Kibicho said Kenyans will be registered at any station irrespective of their respective place of birth in a bid to end tribalism and negative ethnicity.
“As you are aware, we configured this exercise so that at the end of it, it must also bring our nationhood together and sense of belonging to our Kenyan people,” he said. This is, however, misleading. In fact, evidence from other countries that have launched digital registries and Kenya’s own experience with mass registration exercises have not yielded tangible improvements to national cohesion or a sense of nationhood.
To be sure, lack of a formal national identity excludes persons from participating in the opportunities that accrue to citizens of the respective nation-State, particularly in the digital economy.
The UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) says over a billion people across the world lack identity papers. “In our modern world, this excludes one from services and socio-economic participation, it limits access, for example, to work, housing, a mobile phone, and a bank account,” explains the UNHCR in its strategy paper on Digital Identity and Inclusion.
READ MORE
Issues that should be addressed to improve digital public infrastructure
“In fact, the lack of a documented identity constitutes for vulnerable and already marginalised people a constant risk of transgressing the lines between legal and illegal.” On the other hand, registration of persons does not automatically translate to equitable access to State services and distribution of public resources. A report by Access Now, a digital policy think tank, indicates that despite the gains inherent in digital registries, the scope for abuse is wide and the same tools can and has been used to deny minority populations access to public goods and services.
“Without proper human rights safeguards that are rigorously followed, national identity programmes can be counterproductive to the welfare of the people, violate internationally protected human rights, and undermine our cybersecurity.
This has been evident in China where digital registries coupled with surveillance networks and a social scoring system have been used to single out minority groups such as ethnic Muslims.
In India, several high-profile data breaches have been reported on the 12-digit Aadhaar number, exposing the private details including bank account numbers of tens of millions of Indians. Since the 2013 General Elections, Kenya has allowed voters to register anywhere in the country but this has not worked to eliminate tribalism or enhance national cohesion.
At the same time, government officials led by President Uhuru Kenyatta are insisting that registration for the Huduma Namba is compulsory, in direct contravention of a court order and thereby undermining the country’s nationhood.
