Ruto: Digital IDs to be ready by end of year

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Ruto: Digital IDs to be ready by end of year
Ruto: Digital IDs to be ready by end of year

Africa-Press – Kenya. You may soon not be required to carry your identification card to access government services or premises once the new directive by President William Ruto is implemented.

Speaking Friday during a data protection conference at KICC, Ruto disclosed plans to introduce a digital identity in the country. “It is no longer the work of the government to issue IDs but to identify Kenyans,” Ruto said.

The service, he said, will be available by the end of the year. “I have asked my good friend Eliud to work on it so that big Huduma Namba things that never were, we can finally have a digital identity,” he said.

The digital ID seeks to replace Huduma Namba which was launched in 2019. The Huduma Bill No.57 of 2021 sought to provide a primary law on civil registration and legal identity. In 2018, people were registered into Huduma Namba in the first phase. However, the High Court declared Huduma Card unconstitutional on October 2021.

Noting that there has been tremendous progress with regard to migrating government services to the digital platform, Ruto said from 300 services, his administration has doubled it to 600 in the last two weeks.

Another 5,000 services, he said, will be offered digitally in the next six months. Over the next five years, he said, the government intends to construct another 100,000 kilometres of national fibre optic network to achieve universal broadband connectivity in the country.

The target, he said, is to enhance government service delivery by digitising and wherever possible, automating critical processes online. “We are developing the digital master plan and establishing a regional force to promote the large-scale development of software for export,” Ruto said.

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