Experts tell court Maisha Namba discriminative, threat to privacy

Two experts have poured cold water on the Kenya Kwanza digital identification card project.

Prof Laura Bingham, an international law expert, and Dr Thomas Fisher, a senior researcher at Privacy International in the UK, yesterday raised questions on the Maisha Namba programme launched in 2023.

On June 30, 2023, President William Ruto claimed that the initial project, Huduma Namba, which cost Kenyans Sh15 billion, was a fraud, adding that Kenyans got “little out of it”.

He then rolled out the digital ID project, which he said would cost Sh1 billion.

But in their testimony before High Court judge Lawrence Mugambi in cases filed by Haki na Sheria and Katiba Institute, the experts argued that significant concerns about privacy, system security, data storage, and access and redress mechanisms needed to be ironed out.

Laura argued that the government could use the system to infringe on people’s privacy. She stated that the information would be on a centralised server and not decentraliased as the government claimed.

She also claimed that the Maisha Namba system could deny nationality even to those holding IDs. According to her, entering incorrect details or making an error would automatically render the person stateless, as they would not access all government services.

The experts asserted that the digital ID system does not address the key concern of vulnerable communities, including pastoralists, displaced persons, persons with disabilities, and immigrants’ failure to get the crucial document.

Instead, she said, it created more problems for them because they could not access the technology.

“It is approximately 70.7 per cent of Kenya’s population lived in rural areas in 2023. A fully online approach to addressing stagnation in birth registration rates in these geographies appears to overlook these important contextual factors to the detriment of groups that have a well-documented history of struggling with access to birth registration and birth certificates,” said Laura.

At the heart of that case was whether the data collected from millions of Kenyans was secure and free from manipulation.

At the same time, there were questions whether there was public participation, and if the same was anchored on law.

The information gathered include mobile phone number, personal email, profession, whether one is involved in agriculture, and what acreage of land one has, was to be stored in one server.

Since its inception, the digital ID rollout has faced four onslaughts.

Nevertheless, the Ministry of Interior asserted that Maisha Namba was rolled out after extensive consultations and provided a safe way for Kenyans to access government services.

The ministry will call its expert witness in July when the case resumes.