Mombasa Governor Hassan Joho and -until recently - his political nemesis Suleiman Shahbal Tuesday rallied Mombasa residents to enlist under Huduma Namba.
Joho and Shahbal arrived at the Mombasa’s Treasury Square at 11am. In tow were MPs Abdulswamad Nassir (Mvita), Mishi Mboko (Likoni), Mombasa Woman Rep Asha Hussein and MCAs and county executives.
Joho, a bitter critic of the Jubilee government prior to the March 9, 2018, handshake between President Uhuru Kenyatta and ODM leader Raila Odinga, said he fully supports Huduma Namba registration.
Huuma is a Sh6 billion Jubilee government project.
The governor directed the MCAs, county executives and the subcounty administration officials to educate residents on the importance of the exercise.
“In Kenya, we have these very weird tendencies of opposing every initiative launched by the government without interrogating them. However, Huduma Namba is not something new because it is being implemented elsewhere in the world.”
The governor, who is an ODM deputy party leader, took issue with Kenyans who have mocked Raila for allowing the government to use his image on billboards asking Kenyans to go out and register with Huduma Namba.
“When people try and make jokes and mockery out of very important exercise such as this one, I’m left wondering. Who said that we should always oppose governments? I want to tell Mombasa residents that the Huduma Namba registration is very important and in fact, Kenya is very late in implementation of this project,” he said.
Shahbal, who lost the Mombasa governor race in 2013 and 2017, said, “I’m here today to register with Huduma Namba with my brother (Joho). We decided to put aside political differences and support government initiatives.”
Likoni MP Mboko said NIIMs will help Kenyans to access government services, solve insecurity issues and terror-related threats, and also help the state in planning its development agenda.
However, she asked the government to ensure the data is protected so that the privacy of every Kenyan is respected.
“How are you going to protect the personal details that will be given out by Kenyans? That is the only assurance we want so that the data will not be abused or used by other individuals for personal gains,” Mboko said.
Mombasa county commissioner Evans Achoki said they target to register about 1.5 million residents by the end of the exercise.
“We have 411 registration assistants who are moving door-to-door to register people. We have asked them to aim to register at least 200 people per day and, if they achieve that, they will be considered for employment during the (August) census,” Achoki said
At least 8 million Kenyans had been registered with the Huduma Namba by Monday, according to Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiangi.
