Kibicho: Round two of Huduma Namba registration to be devolved
George Kebaso @Morarak
The government will open its doors for the Phase two of Huduma Namba mass registration, Interior Principal Secretary, Karanja Kibicho said yesterday.
This means that the 10 million Kenyans who missed out in Phase one of the countrywide registration programme have an opportunity to register, he said.
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Registration programme took place in April and May 2019 albeit in controversial circumstances.
He said data for 14 million Kenyans has already been cleaned and merged awaiting adjudication process.
“We have been directed to do another phase of mass registration. Kenyans who missed out have an opportunity to register in Phase two of this programme,” Kibicho said during a meeting between the ministry and the National Assembly’s Committee on Delegated Legislation at a Nairobi hotel.
Data that has been cleaned and merged captures Kenyans’ details on National Health Insurance Fund, Kenya Revenue Authority, the National Social Security Fund and in the national Identification Card number among others.
When the process started, it faced numerous challenges including apprehension from Kenyans that it was aimed at installing on them the ‘Mark of a Beast’.
Yesterday, the PS debunked that myth, noting that it had come to the attention of the government the Kenyan identification process and documents had been infiltrated by criminals.
“Before the close of this fiscal year, we shall have started mass production of the digital cards,” Kibicho said.
He noted that the government is not changing the process of acquiring the document but making it more secure to avoid possible infiltration.
In terms of safety, the PS said in the last one year, the government has been able to make a document that is authentic and less prone to any kind of counterfeiting.
“We have processed a very tight security document to make it hard to forge. It has a chip which stores all the data of all persons who registered for the Huduma Namba,” he said.
About 90 experts of fingerprints are involved in the ongoing merging of data, he added.
He said in the next phase, most of the process would be devolved to the sublimation level.
“The kits will be devolved further to assistant chiefs in order to expand the civil registration.
However, as it was in Phase one,” he added. First registration exercise cost Sh10.8 billion.
