Individuals without Huduma Namba might soon be blocked from accessing key public services including healthcare, marriage registration and voting if a new proposed Bill is enacted.

The proposed Huduma Bill 2019, by Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i, will also see individuals without Huduma Namba blocked from applying for a passport,  registering for electricity connection to their homes and enrolling into a public educational facility without listing themselves under the National Integrated Identity Management System (NIIMS).

Public Participation

CS Matiangi has already called for public participation over the proposed Huduma Bill and an open public forum slated for Thursday, July 25, 2019, at the Kenya School of Government in Nairobi.

In May this year, High Court ruled that Huduma Namba registration should be optional and cautioned the government against imposing it on Kenyans.

While urging citizens to turn up for the Huduma Namba mass registration in April, Matiang’i and IT CS Joe Mucheru had warned that “even though the registration is optional in line with the High Court order, those who do not register will have problems accessing government services”.

Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC), Nubian Rights Forum, and the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNHCR) had moved to court seeking to stop the registration on grounds that there was no data protection law in the country

The Government initiated the National Integrated Identity Management System (NIIMS) program through Executive Order No. 1 (2018). The purpose of this initiative is to create and manage a central master population database which will be the ‘single source of truth’ on a person’s identity. The database will contain information of all Kenyan citizens and foreign nationals residing in Kenya and will serve as a reference point for ease of service delivery to the people of Kenya.

According to the government, the Huduma Nambas will used in national planning, social services, project resource allocation and even project infrastructure.

Huduma Number is expected to capture biometric and other information data from birth to death.