DIGITAL ID AND RISK OF STATELESSNESS
GRACE MUTUNG’U AND ISAAC RUTENBERG *
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction........................................................................................................... 348
Background ........................................................................................................... 350
Digital ID in Kenya............................................................................................... 351
Exclusion .............................................................................................................. 352
Privacy concerns ................................................................................................... 352
Surveillance .......................................................................................................... 353
Conclusion ............................................................................................................ 354
INTRODUCTION
State issued digital identity is trending in sub-Saharan Africa, 1 and Kenya has not
been left behind. The government of Kenya launched the National Integrated
Identity Management System (‘NIIMS’) in March 2019. 2 Dubbed ‘Huduma
Namba’, which translates to ‘service number’ in Swahili, the programme
envisages a centralisation of identity programmes and the issuance of new unique
personal identifiers to all citizens and registered foreigners in Kenya, but it has not
been without problems.
The legal situation for NIIMS is defined by an Executive Order, an amendment
to the national ID law, Huduma Namba Regulations and a judgement from the
High Court. Through Executive Order No 1 of 2018, the President directed the
development of NIIMS to create and manage a central master population database,
to be the ‘single source of truth’ on all Kenyan citizens and foreign nationals
residing in Kenya. 3 NIIMS was to serve as a reference point for personal data for
Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) and other approved stakeholders.
Later in 2018, an amendment to the primary identity law, the Registration of
Persons Act, was inserted into the Statute Law (Miscellaneous Amendments) Act,
an omnibus bill containing amendments to over fifty other pieces of legislation. 4
The onmibus bill was signed into law in January 2019. It expands the data
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1
2
3
4
Both of Centre for Intellectual Property and Information Technology Law at Strathmore
University in Nairobi, Kenya.
Digital Identity Toolkit: A Guide for Stakeholders in Africa (Toolkit, World Bank Group
2014)
<http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/147961468203357928/pdf/912490WP0Digit00
Box385330B00PUBLIC0.pdf>.
Statute Law (Miscellaneous Amendments) Act, 2018 (2019) CXXI Kenya Gazette Supplement
No 161 (Acts No 18) (Republic of Kenya) 321 (‘Statute Law (Miscellaneous Amendments)
Act’).
Executive Order No 1 of 2018 — Reorganisation of the Government of the Republic of Kenya
(Kenya) 6. This executive order can be found at ‘Executive Order No.1 of 2018 —
Reorganisation of the Government of the Republic of Kenya’, The Elephant (Web Page)
<https://www.theelephant.info/documents/executive-order-no-1-of-2018-reorganisation-ofthe-government-of-the-republic-of-kenya/>.
See Registration of Persons Act, Cap 107 (1949) (Republic of Kenya) (‘Registration of
Persons Act’), as amended by the Statute Law (Miscellaneous Amendments) Act (n 2) 321–
26.