As president Uhuru Kenyatta urges Kenyans to register for Huduma number Kenyans on social media have expressed their views with majority wondering whether the DP has registered.
Until now, all the leading political figures beginning from President Uhuru Kenyatta have registered for the new Huduma Namba digital identification system.
The President said the registration exercise would verify the actual number of government employees including civil servants.
Besides reducing transaction costs for Kenyans, the new exercise will significantly reduce cases of identity theft and make financial and property transactions more secure.
President Uhuru Kenyatta led the exercise by signing for his own Huduma Namba and flagging off the distribution of NIIMS registration kits to all the 47 counties.
He rolled out the project at Masii Public Grounds in Machakos County while opposition leaders Raila Odinga, Musalia Mudavadi, Kalonzo Musyoka and Moses Wetang’ula oversaw the exercise in Mombasa, Murang’a and Kajiado in a historic demonstration of national unity and common purpose.
However, until now, Deputy President William Ruto has not been pictured or documented anywhere registering for the same, after skipping the launch set for Kakamega.
Instead, DP Ruto decided to remain behind to host a visiting delegation from Cuba, a move that can easily be linked to the said growing hostility between him and the President.
Kenyans are now wondering whether the exercise is another scandal in building that may cost tax payers billions of money.
President Kenyatta said NIIMS aims to establish and maintain a master digital national population register that will serve as the only source of identification for everybody resident in Kenya.
“It will integrate personal and functional data that is scattered in many government agencies into one single identity,” said the President, adding that the number will be used at all stages of one’s life from birth to death.
On Monday last week, the High Court has also barred the government from using the data to withhold any services or bar anyone from accessing public facilities.
Justices Weldon Korir, Pauline Nyamweya, and Mumbi Ngugi ruled that it is in the public interest to have such a system for collection of data but the platform should not infringe on the rights of citizens and foreigners in Kenya.
Political pundit believes that the exercise being optional no one is supposed to be forced to register including deputy president.