The High Court of Kenya has suspended any implementation of the Unique Personal Identifier commonly known as the (Maisha Namba), third-generation National Identity Card (Maisha Card), Maisha Digital ID and Maisha Database.
Justice Lawrence Mugambi in his Judgement suspended the exercise following an application by activist Haretha Bulle through the Haki na Sheria initiative challenging the implementation of the same saying its implementation defies constitutional provisions.
Haretha argued that the Maisha ecosystem threatens the potential irreversible risk of breach of mass personal data and permanent exclusion of select groups of the Kenyan populations.
The ecosystem includes a Maisha card being issued to children at birth, the other to the first applicants of National Identity card (ID) and the last to adults who hold the second generation ID cards and apply for replacement upon loss.
Haretha said the government has already confirmed the current problems relating to the issuance of second-generation IDs and the consequent exclusion of certain groups of persons in Kenya owing to secondary vetting and access to registration centres in April this year.
This was in the new guidelines for registration for issuance of IDs in border, urban cosmopolitan and settlement counties.
According to the petitioner “These groups consist of mainly children from minorities and marginalised communities who have trouble procuring citizenship documents such as birth certificates owing to challenges in accessing registration centres for years of secondary vetting of their parents and grandparents in procuring IDs leading to general disenfranchisement. This problem is similarly faced by double registered persons,”
The petitioner said the implementation of the exercise contravenes various sections of the constitution including provisions for public participation, transparency and access to information as well as freedoms.
Haretha had told the court to consider that the effects of the implementation may not be referred to if the exercise is found unconstitutional.
