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The national government is set to kick off second round of Huduma Namba registration. PHOTO | FILE
Govt to kick off another round of Huduma Namba registration, says data safe
The government is set to kick off another phase of Huduma Namba registration after the conclusion of the public participation exercise that started this week.
National project coordinator, Philip Lemahasia, said the registration would be rolled out across the country.
“The exercise would give an opportunity to both Kenyans and foreigners who failed to register, during the earlier exercise due to lack of enough time,” said Lemahasia.
He added that the government is aware a sizeable number of citizens, foreigners and refugees were not registered due to logistical factors.
“We are calling upon them to take advantage of the second round and register since the exercise opens up as this will help access government services easily,” he said.
The Huduma Namba, a unique identification number, will be generated and issued through the National Integrated Identification Management System (NIIMS) portal, which is a one-stop online registration platform and will apply to every person residing in Kenya.
Speaking separately while in Kisumu on Wednesday, the Information Communications Principal Secretary Jerome Ochieng’ assured Kenyans that their Huduma Namba data is safe.
Mr Ochieng’ said the data will only be accessible as provided for by the Data Protection Act, 2019.
The Ministry of ICT and Innovation, he said, was in the process of establishing a commission to oversee the management of all data in the country.
“We were waiting for approval from the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) which we have received and soon we shall advertise for the position of data commissioner and other members of staff,” he said.
The NIIMS Regulations 2020 which are anchored on the Registration of Persons Act sets out the operations and components of the Huduma Namba database and the Huduma Card.
The public participation which is being held concurrently across the eight segmented regions seeks to rope in views from stakeholders before the regulations are taken to the National Assembly for approval.
In the first phase of Huduma Namba registration, 37,724,521 Kenyans and foreign nations personal details were digitally captured.
The project, the PS said, will ensure the availability of accurate, reliable, and comprehensive population registration database that will facilitate adequate planning and enable efficient service delivery to Kenyans.
He added that it will ease security management, enable verification, validation and authentication of personal data of every individual and at the same time promote standardization and streamlining of relevant government processes to minimize cases of identity theft.
Additional reporting by Sophie Njoka and KNA.
