A High Court in Nairobi has suspended the rollout of the new digital Identifiers known as Maisha Namba.
While delivering his ruling, Justice John Chigiti agreed with the petitioners, Katiba Institute, who had argued that a data protection impact assessment was not done and gave orders halting the rollout temporarily.
“Upon perusing the Application alongside the annexures therein, I find that the Application is not frivolous nor vexatious. It raises an arguable case that should be heard and determined on merit within the Fair Administrative Action Act framework,” the judgement read in part.
“Leave is hereby granted in terms of prayer 2 of the said Application. The leave shall operate as a stay in terms of prayer 3.”
In its petition, Katiba Institute argued that the government and in particular the Ministry of Interior and Coordination had not conducted adequate public participation before moving ahead to proceed with the rollout.
“For a second time, the respondents have ignored this Court's rulings and have violated section 31 of the Data Protection Act. They remain intent on building the Maisha Namba on the shaky foundation of data illegally collected and processed during the Huduma Namba exercise,” the petitioners noted.
“They have used hastily developed regulations, adopted in violation of the Statutory Instruments Act, to contravene their Constitutional and statutory obligations.”
On November 1, the Ministry of Interior kicked off the process of piloting Unique Personal Identifiers (UPIs) also known as the Maisha Namba.
The digital ID has been touted as the primary and lifelong identifier for Kenyan citizens.
While addressing Civil Society ahead of the rollout, Immigration, and Citizen Services Principal Secretary Prof Julius Bitok noted that the pilot phase would target first-time applicants and those seeking to replace their IDs.
“All Kenyans turning 18 years in whichever part of Kenya will be issued with a Maisha Card on a pilot basis. This way, we will establish whether there are any errors or issues before we do the penultimate launch," Bitok noted.
“Whereas we are happy with the open-door policy that the government has adopted in engaging stakeholders on digital ID, there are areas around data privacy, inclusion of all voices, and unfair vetting that needs to be addressed," the PS added.
