It’s not what you say but how you say it

What is Huduma Namba? Here’s what I gather after several online searches and from the media, hoping that I’ve not been misinformed. It is a unique personal identification number that will be assigned after you register onto the National Integrated Identity Management System (NIIMS).

And NIIMS is? A national programme for registration of all Kenyan citizens and foreign nationals residing in the country. It involves collecting biometric data from everyone over the age of six, after which you get a number that will be on a card or a document (it’s not clear which).

It is this number (Huduma Namba) that will allow you easy access to government services, such as applying for a national ID, driving licence, KRA PIN, and the rest.

The purpose of this digital registration exercise is to consolidate all the information on a person: ID, KRA PIN, passport, biometric data, etc., onto a central master database, which will then be the ‘single source of truth’ on a person’s identity.

Huduma Namba has been touted as a useful tool for the government to use in national planning, providing social services and project resource allocation.

In the same breath, government officials have suggested that the Namba will be the only identification document you’ll need, saving you, the citizen, the trouble of lugging around the several government-issued documents you’re required to carry.

Obvious question: Why do you need a NIIMS number to help you acquire the several documents the NIIMS number is supposed to save you from carrying?

There are many more questions surrounding Huduma Namba besides this one. But the government doesn’t see the need to explain.

Personally, I don’t care why government doesn’t think citizens deserve explanations. My problem is with how the government tells us what’s what on pretty much everything. There’s entirely too much bass in the government’s tone of voice.

I find this strange because if you think about it, government is kind of like a kept man, whose partner in this relationship called democracy, the put upon spouse, if you like, is us, the citizens.

Kenya is not a net exporter of some national natural resource like oil, gas, gold or coal. Government makes nothing, it sells almost nothing and, therefore, it has no money other than that which we, the partner, give it in taxes. The cars government drives, the houses it lives in, the offices it works from, we pay for, the loans it gets, we underwrite.

There’s nothing wrong with being a kept man necessarily. And of course, you can have ideas and speak your piece. But there’s a code you live by when you’re a kept man. That being, even if you’re physically stronger and can, and sometimes do slap us (citizens) around, you don’t shout at your partner with bass in your voice like you’re the one who pays the bills.

My advice to Kenyan governments, present and future: until you get some ends in your own pockets, lower your voice, know how to talk nicely. That way, the partner who pays for everything won’t get vexed, and they’ll be more amenable to your requests.