Ruto Revives Huduma Namba Which Failed Under Uhuru

Ruto ordered the ICT CS to oversee the creation of a digital identity (ID) similar to the Huduma Namba...

Ruto Revives Huduma Namba Which Failed Under Uhuru
A person holding the new Huduma Namba Card unveiled on Tuesday, October 20, 2020. /TWITTER.MINISTRY OF INTERIOR

President William Ruto has handed new orders to ICT Cabinet Secretary (CS) Eliud Owalo regarding the Huduma Namba project which stalled under former President Uhuru Kenyatta.

Speaking during a delegation at Data Protection Conference in Nairobi, on Thursday, January 27, Ruto ordered the ICT CS to oversee the creation of a digital identity (ID) similar to the Huduma Namba, by the end of this year.

Ruto had blamed Uhuru's government for the series of failures that led to the Huduma Namba project being shelved after it drew controversy.

"I have asked the Ministry of ICT to work on a digital identity so that the big Huduma (Namba) thing that never was, we can finally have as Kenya a digital identity.

President William Ruto poses for a photo during a past Huduma Namba registration exercise. /CITIZEN DIGITAL

"I have told my friend Eliud (Owalo) that by the end of this year, Kenyans must be able to identify themselves digitally. It is not the work of the government to issue IDs, it is the work of the government to identify Kenyans," he said.

Owalo on Tuesday, January 10 revealed that the President was keen on exploring a similar project to the Huduma Namba while unveiling its digitisation programme, arguing that digitisation was key in centralising all government services and reducing the hassle of Kenyans trooping to government offices in person to get national Identification cards (ID).

"The intention of Huduma Namba was good because it was trying to ensure that we have a digital identity that could facilitate virtual transactions between the government and the public as far as the provision of services is concerned," Owalo stated during an interview on Citizen TV.

"It is the same thing we are going to do as we roll out this government digitisation process because it is still imperative that we don’t need as Kenyans to go to government offices flashing identity cards."

To avoid witnessing the same pitfalls that crippled the Huduma Namba system, Owalo announced that they would embark on implementing procedures so that the digitisation programme is in line with various countries' laws.

For starters, the ICT CS had announced that the government had taken over the e-Citizen platform that was run previously by a private company in an effort to digitise 5,000 government services within the next six months.

"We have just taken over the e-Citizen platform and want to upgrade the infrastructure and by next week we will be onboarding additional services on that platform from consumption of services by the public," Owalo stated.

"The public’s interest is better protected when that architecture is in the hands of the State, and that is exactly what we have done."

On the failure of the Huduma Namba project, Owalo attributed it to a lack of sensitisation in the beginning and the timing of its launch which clashed with a crowded political atmosphere.

President Uhuru Kenyatta and First Lady Margaret Kenyatta receive their respective Huduma Namba card during the 11th Mashujaa Day celebrations at Gusii Stadium, Kisii County in 2020. /FILE