• CS Mucheru says the government has no running contract with the French company
• Legislators want IDEMIA probed and blacklisted for operating in Kenya illegally
Image: /FILE
The government yesterday allayed fears of disruption of the biometric registration of Kenyans for Huduma Namba.
This assurance came after MPs on Tuesday voted to block IDEMIA Security – the company providing technology for the exercise – from doing business in the country.
ICT Cabinet Secretary Joe Mucheru said the (MPs') move will not affect the National Integrated Identity Management Service (NIIMS) as the government does not have a running contract with the company.
“The Ministry wishes to clarify that the ongoing Huduma Namba registration process will not be disrupted by the recent parliamentary recommendations seeking to debar Ms IDEMIA from operating in Kenya,” Mucheru said.
He explained that IDEMIA, formerly OT-Morpho, only supplied registration kits used in the exercise on outright purchase basis. As such, the government has no existing or running contract with the firm.
“The 35,000 Morpho Tablet 2 data capture kits were the only hardware component supplied by IDEMIA,” the CS said.
“Therefore, the directions by the National Assembly do not affect Huduma Namba in any way.”
The CS said the core registration software and associated infrastructure of NIIMS were engineered and integrated locally.
There have been fears that the MPs’ decision could have thrown the exercise into disarray.
Mucheru urged Kenyans and foreigners to continue to present themselves for the registration.
“The Huduma Namba is a government of Kenya programme that seeks to create and manage a master bio-data register by capturing data of all citizens and foreigners residing in the country,” he said.
On Tuesday, the legislators unanimously voted to ban the company from operating in Kenya.
They adopted the amendments to the Public Accounts report on the financial operations of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission in the last general elections.
The firm supplied KIEMS kits used in the disputed August 8, 2017 elections. According to the amendments by Homa Bay Town MP Peter Kaluma, IDEMIA violated the Companies Act.
Kaluma said IDEMIA is not listed with the Registrar of Companies and that it lacks local agent and physical address.
This, he argued, contravenes the Companies Act that requires that international companies doing business in Kenya must be registered with the Registrar of Companies.
During the debate, the MPs led by Majority leader Aden Duale asked the DCI to investigate the company for "unethical conduct".
Duale said the company was responsible for the mess in the 2013 and 2017 elections.
“The controversy we received every year in election 2013 and 2017 and the many petitions we received are related to technology and there is no way we can discuss technology in an election without the company that changes its name every year,” he said.