Developer claims Maisha Namba is his, seeks Sh391b compensation

On October 2, 2023, President William Ruto launched a new digital identification card, Maisha Namba, to replace the failed Sh10 billion Huduma Namba project launched by former President Uhuru Kenyatta.

President Ruto criticised the Jubilee Government’s project, calling it a complete failure fraud and alleging that the country lost Sh15 billion with little to show for it.

However, if the court finds the claims of software developer Moses Victor Orwa Onyango true, the Kenya Kwanza government’s initiative could be costly to taxpayers.

Orwa has moved to court, claiming that the current identification system infringes on the copyright he shared with top government officials, including President William Ruto when he was Deputy President in 2021. Orwa is seeking Sh391 billion in compensation.

In court papers filed before the High Court in Nairobi, Orwa has sued the Attorney General, the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS), the Ministry of Interior and Coordination of National Government, the Social Health Authority (SHA), the Ministry of ICT and Digital Economy, the Ministry of Education, and the Director General of the Kenya Citizens and Foreign Nationals Management Service.

Orwa alleges that he developed the software ‘Kenya Cyberspace_Portal’ in 2021, which features a unique identifier, a centralized virtual portal, and a GR code, before copyrighting his work.

“The said work is an original work of the plaintiff,” his papers filed by Moni Wekesa and Company Advocates read in part.

He explains that the software he developed was designed to digitally identify individuals using a unique personal identifier (UPI) assigned to each Kenyan in cyberspace.

He claims the UPI could be used for various purposes, including birth certificates, school enrollment, national identification, KRA pin, health insurance, pension registration, and death certificates.

Orwa says that the UPI would serve as a lifelong identification number. His vision was to conduct an online census, where individuals would be identified from birth to death, and the UPI would be terminated upon the issuance of a death certificate.

He believes this approach would save billions in manual census costs and ensure data accuracy.

Furthermore, he argues that the UPI could have helped the government synchronize national IDs with the country and postal code, with the entire process stored and verified through a central portal.

He recalls that he believed his innovation would be a game changer if adopted by the government. He first emailed the KNBS Director General on September 8, 2021, to pitch the idea. Later, on September 15 and October 11, he reached out to then-Makueni County Senator Mutula Kilonzo Jr. (now the current governor), seeking his help in contacting the relevant government authorities.

Orwa claims he revealed the innovation to Mutula and shared documents related to it with Gloria Wawira, a legal officer in Parliament. He says Wawira, referred to him by Tirimba Machogu, the then-legal and policy advisor to the Cabinet Secretary for Education, examined the innovation.

On November 5, 2021, then ICT CS Joe Mucheru and Mutura advised him to approach the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), which he did on November 30, 2021, with follow-up communication between December 2 and 10, 2021.

Orwa argues that Maisha Namba closely resembles his copyrighted innovation and that the government implemented his software without obtaining a license or permission.

He claims that Maisha Namba uses the Unique Personal Identifier (UPI) to identify individuals upon registration, similar to his proposed system. He states that the government is using the UPI for purposes such as birth certificates, education enrollment numbers, and health insurance registration.