President Ruto – Govt to introduce digital ID cards

Kenya wants to introduce digital identities containing the data of every citizen, President William Ruto said on Wednesday.

Opening the seventh improved ID4Africa conference in Nairobi, Ruto said it was part of the government’s plan to set up its digital civil registration system and vital statistics system.

“The government is considering establishing a civil status and an important statistical system that meets the needs of the new digital age. The new system must be able to provide unique personal identification numbers at birth to all people born in Kenya,” the president said.

According to the Head of State, the government also wants a solution for travelers’ information to track travel inside and outside the country.

“…to upgrade the current national identity card to a national digital identity management system and adopt a more modern passenger information solution to manage entry and exit at our borders and ports”, said Ruto.

The President invited identity management practitioners across the continent to contribute to possible innovations to achieve greater integrity and efficiency in the sector.

“The privacy of registrants’ data is an important part of our public mandate, and we must take all possible measures to protect it at all times,” Ruto added.

“We cannot postpone or downgrade our identity management efforts. Therefore, our development partners have the opportunity to explore possible areas of cooperation with our Department of State for Immigration and Human Services to support our identity management initiatives.

The government in March launched the Unique Identification Number (UPI) to capture and register all births and deaths in the country.

Immigration and Citizenship Secretary Julius Bittok said in February that the UPI will be uploaded to the eCitizen website and give all newborns a unique number to use in schools and colleges.

It will also be used as an ID, PIN, National Health Insurance Fund and Kenya Revenue Authority, the SP said, adding that the government will scrap the census exercise as the government will have real-time data about the country. the number of people.

So far, primary school students have already started receiving their UPI in all schools in the country.