Human Rights Organisations have called on the government to halt the rollout of the Maisha Card until several steps are undertaken.
In a briefing held on Thursday, the lobbyists want the process halted until adequate public participation is conducted and a proper legal framework is enacted.
"We urge the government to take immediate action to ensure the enactment of proper legislation, meaningful public participation, access to critical documentation (birth certificates and ID cards) for all Kenyans, and adequate data protection measures and adherence to the law in the process aimed at creating a digital identity system in Kenya," the lobbyists said.
They said the rollout would deny citizens access to national documents just like it was witnessed during the implementation of Huduma Namba.
"We further wish to remind the government of the unacceptable consequences of discrimination, eroding of privacy and exclusion for communities that have historically struggled with access to documentation that were witnessed with a similarly hurried and flawed implementation of Huduma Namba," the lobbyists said.
"We reinforce that the opaque rollout, lack of public engagements and a lack of proper procedural and legal safeguards associated with the Unique Personal Identifier/Maisha Number rollout would wreak havoc on the ways citizens access nationality documents."
They urged the government to enact a proper legal framework to govern the system that is fully grounded in the Constitution.
The groups also want them to conduct nationwide public participation on the proposed legal framework, any draft regulations, and the system design.
"Implement affirmative action measures to issue documents to all persons who have been excluded or been unable to obtain the same due to the historical previous existence of vetting processes over the past several decades," the lobbyists said.
According to the lobbyists, the government should ensure all Kenyans have access to documentation (birth certificates and ID cards) before moving forward with digitization.
"Conduct a robust Data Protection Impact Assessment and Human Rights Impact Assessment of the system that is made public for scrutiny and from which improvements will be made to the system design," the lobbyists said.
