The Kenya Human Rights Commission has moved to court to block the  National Integrated Identity Management System (NIIMS) dubbed ‘Huduma Namba’, which seeks to have a biometric database of all citizens and foreigners in the country.

KHRC says the process of legislating NIIMS did not create room for public participation.

“NIIMS was sneaked in through Miscellaneous Amendment Act 2018 that made a major amendment to the Registration of Person Act, inserting a statement that provides the legal basis for the project.

Miscellaneous Amendments do not give room for facilitating public involvement. NIIMS will have a substantial effect on individuals once implemented, hence ought to have been subjected to public participation.” KHRC said in a statement.

The government launched a pilot of the huduma namba registration on Monday, which will be conducted in 15 counties.

The human rights commission has sued the National Assembly Speaker Justin Muturi, Attorney General Kariuki Kihara, Cabinet secretaries Fred Matiang’i (Interior), Joe Mucheru (ICT) and the Kenya Law Reform.

The government announced that once the programme is officially launched nationally, Kenyans who will not be registered in the National Integrated Identity Management Systems will be denied crucial government services.

Kenyans on Twitter have taken to protest NIIMS under the hashtag # #ResistHudumaNamba.