ICT and Digital Economy CS has explained why the Huduma Namba service proposed by the former regime failed to pick up.
According to Owalo, the programme was introduced too close to the General elections.
He said this, got Kenyans suspicious of the real intention of getting the numbers.
Owalo said the other reason it failed was because the then administration failed in doing sensitisation, to make Kenyans understand why it was necessary to have it.
"Huduma Namba failed because of the way it was introduced. First of all that Huduma thing was introduced at the wrong time, very close to the elections, and Kenyans became suspicious. Two there was insufficient communication around Huduma.
"Whenever you are introducing a change programme you need to tell Kenyans why that change is necessary, How it is going to affect them, what their role will be in the programme and the end result. How it will impact them," The CS said on Citizen TV.
He, however, noted that the Huduma Namba idea was good, but its only problem was the timing.
He further noted that the registration number was intended at having an electronic population database.
Owalo said this, is unlike the Digital IDs proposed by President William Ruto's administration.
He said the new ones will also help facilitate transactions between individuals and the government.
"Our focus is to facilitate transactions between members of the public and the government. I should be able, using your database to confirm this is Jeff Koinange, that's what we are talking about."
This comes barely a week after Ruto announced that Kenyans will have Digital IDs in the next 90 days.
The president said this after referring to the Huduma Namba programme as a "complete fraud".
"In the next 90 days, we must have a Digital ID. That Digital ID has been traumatic for Kenya. We are all aware that there was another phantom project called Huduma Namba that was a complete fraud. We lost almost Sh15 billion and got very little out of it," Ruto said.
