Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang'i has finally answered a question lingering in the minds of many Kenyans about why the government is implementing the National Integrated Identity Management System (NIIMS) as a different exercise from the National Census scheduled for August 2019.
Citizens have been having a hard time trying to understand why the government could not combine the registration exercise with the upcoming census, thereby saving a huge amount of money.
Matiang'i explained the logic while speaking to NTV's Dennis Okari who had hosted him for an interview.
"The process of registering Huduma Namba is to enable every Kenyan to have a UPI (Unique Personal Identifier). Census is counting people. We are not counting people so this is not census and no one should build a correlation what we are doing and census," the CS explained.
The news presenter also asked Matiang'i to assure Kenyans of the security of the data collected.
The CS disclosed that the Privacy and Data Protection Bill that is awaiting Parliamentary approval will add an extra layer of security on the data.
"Let me ask a question Dennis do you know where the data on your driving license is? Do you know where your PIN (KRA) data is? Do you know where your ID data is?" Matiang'i posed.
"You have trusted your government so much, why are you mistrusting us at this point in time? " he added.
The CS disclosed that the Interior Ministry was working closely with the ICT Ministry to safeguard everyone's particulars collected for the NIIMS project.
"I can assure Kenyans that we will stop at nothing to ensure that the data that we collect is safe and secure," he affirmed.
Giving an update of the number of Kenyans who have successfully registered, Matiang'i announced that by Tuesday, data from more than eight million citizens had been collected.
The CS also added that the government would meet its target by May 18, so an extension of the deadline was out of the question. The kits will still be in the possessions of Chiefs for anyone who fails to register by the deadline.
Watch Matiang'i explaining why Huduma Namba and the National Census can't be combined.
