• The President said he has tasked the Ministry of ICT to work on a digital identity similar to the Huduma Namba.
• In his response to this development, Ngunyi pointed out how things tend to remain the same the more they change. The cards were declared unconstitutional by the court.
Image: FILE
Political analyst Mutahi Ngunyi has weighed in on President William Ruto's remarks that Huduma Namba will be making a comeback, this time as a digital ID.
Speaking on Friday during the Data privacy day at KICC, the President said he has tasked the Ministry of ICT to work on a digital identity similar to the Huduma Namba.
"So that the big Huduma thing that never was we can finally have as Kenya a digital identity and I have told my good friend Eliud (ICT CS) that by the end of this year, Kenyans must be able to identify themselves digitally," he said.
Ruto emphasised that it's not the work of the government to issue IDs but rather, to identify Kenyans.
In his response to this development, Ngunyi pointed out how things tend to remain the same the more they change.
"The more things change, the more they remain the same. Huduma Namba is back," Ngunyi said.
His remarks were in reference to the court ruling which declared the Huduma Namba unconstitutional saying its rollout was in conflict with Data Protection Act.
The court in its judgment on October 14, 2021, said there was no public participation nor a framework to guarantee the safety of citizens' data in the registration and issuance of the digital cards.
Justice Jairus Ngaah ruled that the government should have conducted an impact assessment before rolling out the Huduma cards.
The stoppage of the rollout of the cards saw Sh10 billion go down the drain, this being the amount the government had already spent on producing the cards.
Professor Yash Pal Ghai and Katiba Institute sued the government arguing that it was wrong for the Huduma cards to be rolled out before a data protection impact assessment exercise was conducted.
Ngunyi further took a swipe at the Kenya Kwanza government over its alleged plans to borrow.
Treasury has set Ruto's first budget at Sh3.64 trillion against a revenue collection target of Sh2.9 trillion as indicated in the draft Budget Policy Statement for the 2023/24 financial year.
Meanwhile, Ruto's administration is targeting to borrow Sh3.6 trillion in his first five-year term, backtracking on his calls for the country to ease its borrowing appetite.
The amount is equivalent to 89 per cent of the Sh4.1 trillion that his predecessor, Uhuru Kenyatta, borrowed in the five years to June 2022.
"And government intends to borrow Sh3.6 trillion in debt during its first term (Media Reports). Different monkeys, same forest," Ngunyi said.