President Uhuru Kenyatta suffered a blow in his Huduma Numba registration ambition as the High Court ruled that the government should not make the exercise mandatory or issue deadlines for the collection of NIIMS data.
The three-judge bench comprising Justices Weldon Korir, Pauline Nyamweya and Mumbi Ngugi, however, allowed the government to roll out the National Integrated Identity Management System (NIIMS), beginning Tuesday, April 2 as had been earlier planned.
The government was also barred from collecting DNA data and GPS coordinates as part of the NIIMS data, pending determination of the case challenging the exercise.
The court also barred the government from sharing the NIIMS information with any foreign organization.
In a move that had sparked public uproar, the government had said no Kenyan would receive government services, nor obtain an ID, passport, driving license or even a birth certificate without first registering on the National Integrated Identity Management System (NIIMS).
President Uhuru Kenyatta will launch the NIIMS programme in Machakos County while his deputy William Ruto and Opposition leader Raila Odinga will roll out the system in Kakamega and Mombasa respectively.
Wiper Party leader Kalonzo Musyoka will be in Murang’a County and Musalia Mudavadi in Kajiado to launch the same.
NIIMS, which will capture data for persons from the age of 6, will create and manage a central master population register.
This, the government says will be the authentic source of truth of identity of all persons residing in Kenya including foreigners.
Each NIIMS registration will generate a unique number to be known as a Huduma Namba.
The purpose of Huduma Namba will be to assign a personal unique identification to facilitate government services after capturing bio-metric data of all citizens and foreigners.
The court will base the ruling on factors such as rights of citizens versus security requirements.
Questions on violations of rights following forced registration including provision of DNA were raised.
