Govt will appeal Huduma Namba court ruling, Matiang’i says
Dr Matiang’i said the government had good intentions by enlisting people on Huduma Namba and offered to educate other arms of government on why it should be rolled out.
Interior CS Fred Matiang'i on Friday announced that the government would appeal Thursday's court ruling that nullified Huduma Namba roll out.
The CS maintained that the law was followed when enlisting members of the public.
Dr Matiang’i said he had already talked to Attorney General Kihara Kariuki to pursue the matter to the highest court possible, saying the new cards would help the government reduce the number of cards one needs for transactions.
Addressing new assistant county commissioners at the Mt Kenya School of Adventure and Leadership, the CS faulted the judiciary for ruling against the government.
“The people who are opposed to this are the cartels who have made a living by supplying all manner of conflicting systems and they have been making money out of this and this is what is being protected,” he alleged.
“What we are doing is to bring all that data together so that you use one card and one number to access services. What is illegal about that? I do not know where some people live.”
The High Court on Thursday declared the government's rollout of Huduma Namba cards unconstitutional on grounds that no data protection safeguards were implemented by the Interior ministry.
Justice Jairus Ngaah, however, gave the Interior ministry an opportunity to regularise the process by ordering that an impact assessment be done in relation to data collected from over 36 million Kenyans, many of whom have already collected their Huduma Cards.
On Friday, Dr Matiang’i said the government had good intentions by enlisting people on Huduma Namba and offered to educate other arms of government on why it should be rolled out.
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The CS, who was accompanied by Interior PS Karanja Kibicho, Public Service Board chairperson Charity Kisotu and eight regional coordinators, said the government would not back down on the roll out.
He cited the opposition the government faced while implementing the digital television migration saying it has enhanced access to information and helped boost communication during the Covid-19 pandemic.
He said the Huduma Namba cards would help combine data in various documents like identity cards, birth certificates, driver’s licenses and could in future be used to pay bills by accessing bank accounts.
“On the digital migration, the High Court and the Court of Appeal ruled against us and we had to go to the Supreme Court on the matter,” he recalled.
“I want to assure you, as a government, we are prepared to go all the way even if it is the Supreme Court… We cannot be the only country where one needs a handbag to carry their cards.”
The CS also announced that his ministry was accelerating a move by the national government to digitize communication to help speed up response and interventions as the country prepares for the General Election.
Dr Matiang’i emphasised that the administrators had a big responsibility in ensuring peaceful polls and urged them to work closely with community leaders and avoid taking part in politics.
He also encouraged the National Police Service to fully embrace digital occurrence books.
