Human rights organizations calls on Ministry of interior to halt roll out of unique personal identifier dubbed "Maisha number"

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NAIROBI, Kenya September 15...A coalition of Civil society and community based organisations working in the National and grassroots level have come together to express concerns with governments plan to roll out  "Maisha number" on september 29 2023 

"We urge the government to take immediate action to ensure enactment of proper legislation , meaningful public participation acess to critical documentation (birth certificates and ID cards) for all kenyans  and adequate data protection measures and adherance to the law  aimed at creating digital identity system in Kenya" a letter to PS state department of immigration and citizens service Julius bitok stated  

"We further wish to remind the govenment of unacceptable consequences of discrimination, eroding of privacy and exclusion of communities that have historically  struggle with access if documentation that were witnessed with similarly hurried and flawed implementation of Huduma number" reads a statement

On 14th August 2023, the Kenyan government and the United Nations Developement program (UNDP) signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) that effectively set the stage for the roll out of digital identity in Kenya 

Subsequently PS Bitok met with diverse civil society organisations in february 2023 to forge a partnership towards addressing the concerns with digitizing identity systems  and reforming discriminative and marginizing process from the vulnerable communities  who face hard times in obtaining nationality documents

"There has not been a single public participation forum despite commitments made by PS Bitok , no data protection assesment  has been made public, no public awareness has been conducted and safeguard put in place in ensuring Kenyans who have struggled to obtain documentation acquire a UPI or related government services" the statement reads further 

In addition they call on the government to conduct meaningful nation wide public participation on the proposed legal framework , inclusion of civil society, members of the public and those from marginalized communities 

They further urged the government to ensure all kenyans have access to documentation which include birth certificates and ID cards before moving forward to digitization and most importantly ensure a robust data  protection assessment 





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