Kenya plans $145m e-registration of adults, children by October 2015

At the swipe of an e-card, all information on individuals, including relatives, bank accounts and property will be revealed. TEA GRAPHIC | NATION MEDIA GROUP 

By CHRISTABEL LIGAMI, TEA Special Correspondent

In Summary

• The government expects that once the $145 million registry is set up, all Kenyan nationals, including children, will be issued with electronic national identity cards by October next year.
• The e-card will contain biodata of each individual, their kin, assets, bank accounts, driving licence, passport number and personal identification number (PIN) and an array of information that could also enhance the war against tax evasion, loan default and corruption.
• The NDRS project will register people (Kenyan citizens, foreigners, refugees), establishments (companies and co-operative societies), land (digital maps, L/R numbers, infrastructure, physical addressing) and assets (buildings shares, vehicles, livestock).

An Israeli firm has been contracted to set up and manage the fresh registration of Kenyan citizens on a digital platform, setting in motion a process that will see all data on individuals and their assets stored in one data bank, starting February next year.

The government expects that once the $145 million registry is set up, all Kenyan nationals, including children, will be issued with electronic national identity cards by October next year. The new IDs will then be used universally from 2016.

The e-card will contain biodata of each individual, their kin, assets, bank accounts, driving licence, passport number and personal identification number (PIN) and an array of information that could also enhance the war against tax evasion, loan default and corruption.

The government also hopes the new IDs, similar to social security numbers in place in the United Kingdom and the United States of America, will aid the war against terror.

The Israeli firm, which officials declined to name, is the lead implementing partner under a public-private partnership and will work with a consortium of technology solutions providers.

The project is being conducted by the Kenyan Citizens and Foreign Nationals Management Service and includes the Civil Registry, National Registry Bureau, Immigration Department, Department of Refugees Affairs and Integrated Population Registry Service.

“The Israeli company was chosen because of the track record Israel has on security services. The reason for the National Digital Registry Service (NDRS) is the increase in insecurity, especially after the Westgate attack,” said Mwende Gatabaki, director-general of the Kenya Citizens and Foreign National Management Service, during a sensitisation meeting on Wednesday.

The government will provide a Letter of Comfort and grant an exclusive concession to the consortium to run and supervise the registry for a period of at least six years before handing it over to the government.

The government is looking for $35 million from USAid, DfID, the World Bank and AfDB to support a management office, capacity building, change management, communication and public awareness.

The government has committed $10 million to cover the early phase of the registration, which will see all Kenyans issued with new identity cards.

“All citizens of all ages will be required to undergo a national digital registration at the designated centres to be announced so as to capture correct and complete biometric data using their unique digital identifiers referenced from birth to death,” said Ms Gatabaki.

The financial sector is expected to be the main consumer of the data by way of checking credit history and tracking of assets offered as collateral or securities earmarked for auction in cases of default.

Ms Gatabaki said that the government is in discussions with the Association of Credit Providers, which includes associations for bankers, Saccos, insurance companies and microfinance institutions, to be the anchor client of the PPP.

The digital ID is expected to be costly as details to be captured are more than those in the current IDs and digitisation of such data (hopefully capable of future updates) involves a high-end technological system hence a bigger budget to run the project. It will cost Ksh500 ($6) for people over the age of 12 years and Ksh100 ($1.1) for children below 12 years.

Updating of the cards will be free while replacement of a lost card will cost Ksh1,000 ($11).