Kenyan digital IDs: paused again

By Nita Bhalla | East Africa Correspondent

Dec 14, 2023, / Thomson Reuters Foundation/ — A high court in Kenya has halted the rollout of a new national digital identification programme, saying authorities failed to assess the risks from processing citizens’ personal data.

The Maisha Namba digital ID project is the Kenyan government’s second attempt to implement a digital ID card, which would require Kenyans to provide their biographic and biometric data.

The digital ID scheme’s predecessor, Huduma Namba, was ruled illegal by the Court of Appeal in April 2022 for the same reason: the failure to conduct a data protection impact assessment.

The government was forced to scrap the initiative.

Authorities say the new Maisha card will provide a lifelong single numerical identification which will give citizens secure and faster access to government services, such as birth and death documentation, healthcare and education.

A Masai woman holds her ID card near the town of Magadi some 85 km (53 miles) south of Nairobi, Kenya March 4, 2013. REUTERS/Goran Tomasevic

But civil rights groups, who petitioned the court to halt the rollout of Maisha cards, argued that authorities did not follow Kenya’s data protection law which states that an impact assessment must be done before processing digital identity data.

They also contended that policy was being rolled out without sufficient public engagement and participation.

The previous Huduma Namba digital ID initiative resulted in the collection of personal data of millions of Kenyans and reportedly cost 10 billion Kenyan Shillings ($65 million) before it was scrapped by the government.