Huduma Number Again? What Kenyans Need to Know

Huduma Number  is back. Interior Ps Dr. Karanja Kibicho has revealed what has been happening with Huduma Number. Addressing The National Assembly Committee on Delegated Legislation, Dr. Kibicho has also revealed why the already registered members have not received their cards by now. Concerned citizens filed cases in courts questioning the security of the data they gave out during registration. This forced the government to only collect the data and not work on it.

We were allowed by the court only to carry out the data capture but not use that data. Therefore, even after we received that data, there was not much we could do to make that data useful-Dr Kibicho.

Huduma Number E-cards Soon

Dr. Kibicho has revealed the resumption of processing of the already collected data and production of the e-cards. This means that Kenyans may be having their e-cards soon. However, there has been a delay in the process due to court cases that were put up in question of security of citizens’ information in relation to the cards. That said, the government is planning to start mass production of these e-cards towards the end of this year. About 37 million Kenyans showed up for registration. This implies that Kenyans who might be required to register are those that missed the process earlier. Kenyans can now rest as their data is safe.

Here is Dr. Kibicho’s statement.

Long Wait

The government required all citizens to register for Huduma Number one year ago. However, there has not been any official communication of what has been happening behind the scenes. There were cases of registration officers going without pay, where such matters took months to be mediated. This left Kenyans with many questions in regard to what was happening. Well, this might be another beginning of a long wait. Since the government has not issued specific dates, Kenyans just have to sit tight and expect anything. Meanwhile those who missed the registration can maintain an open eye for a second chance.  This time there might be shorter queues and the sun  might be less scorching.

During the last exercise, Kenyans turned up in huge numbers in the exercise. Due to the slow registration process, many spent hours in the queues in the scorching sun. Some ended up leaving unattended. This explains why not every Kenyan registered. Now they may have another chance.

Information Merging

Huduma Number is expected to merge personal information in one card for ease of access of government services. This  includes Driver’s Licence, NSSF cards, NHIF among others. Merging of this information, he says, will ensure that government will not require Kenyans to have several cards or documents to be accorded services. This saves Kenyans the headache of having to remember several numbers. However, the already stored information in the databases shall remain intact. There is no need to worry.