President Uhuru Kenyatta yesterday launched the Huduma Namba project in Machakos.
The National Integrated Identity Management System (NIIMS) will unify numbers of all government identity documents such as drivers' licences and passports.
The 45-day registration campaign is now starting in all 47 counties.
Civil rights activists unsuccessfully went to court arguing that Huduma Namba violated human rights if citizens could not access government services without it. This was a silly argument. You cannot access services today unless you have a government ID. Nothing has fundamentally changed.
The Huduma Namba will use biometric registration, like the voter's card. This will ensure an irrefutable census in August 2019. The 2009 census was retrospectively adjusted to reduce the population in the Northeast because of claims that it was inflated. That won't happen again.
Similarly, Huduma Namba will eliminate ghost workers in the police and government departments. It will no longer be possible to maintain multiple identities.
Citizens and residents will only require a single unified identity card.
So if it makes life more convenient, and makes government more efficient, why should we fight Huduma Namba? Let's all get registered now.
Quote of the day: "A faith is something you die for, a doctrine is something you kill for. There is all the difference in the world."
Tony Benn
The English politician was born on April 3, 1925
