President William Ruto's Kenya Kwanza government on Wednesday, February 22, lived up to its plan to digitise over five thousand services in the country.
Through the Department of Immigration and Citizen Services in the Ministry of Interior, the government negotiated with civil society groups to educate Kenyans on the upcoming changes.
In the deal, stakeholders will undertake a countrywide civic education that will sensitise Kenyans on what they should expect after digitising.
"The Government and civil society have agreed to a joint public sensitization campaign on the planned massive digitization of essential registration services," read the statement by the Ministry of Interior.
In the agreement, both government and 25 civil societies formed a joint working group that outlined the digitisation plan and discussed concerns around privacy and the security of data that will be harvested during the registration.
The Non-governmental organisations present included Amnesty International, Transparency International, Article 19, Katiba Institute, Mzalendo Trust, Open Institute, Nubian Rights forum, Siasa Place and the Lawyers Hub, among others.
Immigration and Citizen Services PS Julius Bitok noted that President William Ruto's government was keen on identifying and solving the challenges that may be identified during digitisation projects.
‘We are committed to partnering with the civil society. We know the challenges the government went through during the Huduma Namba rollout."
"The price of failure was too high due to avoidable differences of opinion and tactics. We want to walk together to avoid unnecessary litigation and roadblocks that will negatively impact service delivery,” PS Bitok explained.
Amnesty International Kenya Director, Irungu Houghton, sought assurances that the envisaged rollout will be preceded by data impact assessment, data protection mechanisms and elaborate public and other public and other stakeholders’ involvement.
“We need to make it possible for the public to be aware of what is happening so that they can participate fully; so that they can give feedback so that the exercise that the President has mandated moves with speed, depth and integrity in regards to the Data Protection Act,” Houghton urged.
In response, Data Protection Commissioner Immaculate Kassait noted that the country stood to gain from the full implementation of the Data Protection Act as it will mitigate investors’ concerns around identity theft and the security of their investments.
The programme will focus on raising awareness of issues around digital registration and the program's rationale and draw an engagement plan for stakeholders’ consultative forums while also providing channels for feedback on pertinent issues.
"Its immediate agenda will be to draw a consultative plan for the rollout of the Unique Personal Identifier (UPI) that the government plans to launch in April and the third generation ID, the National Digital Identifier (NDI)," read the statement by Interior Ministry.
