Kenyans have expressed concern over the safety of the data given out during Huduma Namba registration, during public hearings on Huduma Namba regulations published by the government, participants said the State lacks the capacity to protect personal details, putting at risk information provided by individuals.
The government has, however, assured Kenyans that data collected for Huduma Namba registration was safe and shall be used in accordance with the law.
The Information Communications and Technology (ICT) and Innovation, Principal Secretary (PS), Jerome Ochieng said the data protection act 2019 shall be enforced to ensure that all data collected from Kenyans is safe.
Speaking in Kisumu on Wednesday during the launch of a public participation drive on the National Integrated Identity Management System (NIIMS) regulations 2020 at Tom Mboya Labour College, the PS said the government has instituted measures to ensure safety of data in the country.
The Ministry of ICT and Innovation, he said was in the process of establishing a Data Commission to oversee management of all data in the country.
“We were waiting for approval from the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) which we have received and soon we shall advertise for the position of data commissioner and other members of staff,” he said.
The NIIMS regulations 2020 which are anchored on the Registration of Persons Act sets out the operations and components of the Huduma Namba database and the Huduma Card.
The Public Participation which is being held concurrently across the eight segmented regions seeks to rope in views from stakeholders before the regulations are taken to the national Assembly for approval.
The exercise is expected to set in motion the rolling out of phase two of Huduma number after the successful launch last year which saw 37,724,521 Kenyans’ and Foreign Nationals personal data digitally captured.
The project, he said will ensure availability of accurate, reliable, and comprehensive population registration database that will facilitate adequate planning and enable efficient service delivery to Kenyans.
He added that it will ease security management, enable verification, validation and authentication of personal data of every individual and at the same time promote standardization and streamlining of relevant government processes to minimize cases of identity theft.
He asked Kenyans to take advantage of the window and present their views before 2nd March 2020 to be incorporated in the regulations.
