Kenyan National ID To Become Useless In 12 Months

Kenyans are in for a change following the announcement that the current National IDs will cease being operational in December 2021 and replaced by Huduma Card Namba.

According to Cabinet Secretary for ICT Mr. Joe Mucheru, the Huduma Namba cards will start being issued on December 1, 2020.

This now means that National ID cards will become useless in the next one year. Millions of Kenyans boycotted taking Huduma Nambas at the time the government was pushing for it.

The Court had ruled that Huduma Namba was optional but the government seems determined to have it sail through by fire, by thunder, and Kenyans who will fail to will be forced to.

The high court, on Thursday 30th January 2020, declined to declare the Huduma Namba exercise unconstitutional and has allowed the Government to continue with the implementation of the exercise.

High court Judges Pauline Nyamweya, Mumbi Ngugi, and Weldon Korir said the issue raised by the Nubia Right Forum and the Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC) lacked merit that would warrant a ruling in their favor.

The High court judges argued that on the issue of discrimination by the Nubian community, the petitioners failed to provide enough evidence to prove their case.

The judges also ruled that the process of enacting the law that enacted Huduma Namba had met the threshold of public participation.

The three-judge bench found that the public was given enough time to present their views on the bill before the debate in parliament, contrary to the petitioners’ argument that the time frame of seven days was too short.

On whether the government violated the privacy of Kenyans in collecting biometric data, the judges ruled that personal data is only intrusive if it is collected without the consent of the said person.

The government was, however, asked to enact laws to guide against discrimination and data abuse.

“That the respondents are at liberty to proceed with the implementation of NIIMS but conditional on the enactment of an appropriate and comprehensive regulatory framework on the implementation,” said Judge Mumbi Ngugi.