Accepting that Huduma Number is here to stay, will save you the rude shock of it realities being slapped in your face any time. A couple of days ago, Immigration Principal Secretary Gordon Kihalangwa declared that any Kenyan who will apply for a passport without prior Huduma Namba registration will be treated as a foreigner.
Today, Communications Authority of Kenya Director General Francis Wangusi has warned that the government will switch off phone sim-cards whose owners will not have registered for Huduma Namba by the May 18 deadline.
“We are taking stock of registration and by the time the exercise ends, we shall ask the service providers to deactivate all numbers and register them afresh. Some people may read malice but the State is serious in coming up measures aimed at ensuring cybersecurity, and also protecting people’s data and privacy,” Wangusi said.
While addressing delegates at the ICT week celebrations in Kisumu named Kikao Kikuu, Communication Authority Director General Francis Wangusi said that defaulters may miss services such as the use of their mobile phones, access to MPesa Service, Airtel Money, and ATM withdrawals.
President’s Chief of Staff Nzioka Waita has cleared the air saying there are no punitive measures against Huduma Namba abstainees.
For the avoidance of doubt Huduma Number Registration is a voluntary excercise in compliance with the ruling of the Courts.There is no directive from the Government to institute any punitive measures against those who don’t register.More emphasis will be laid on civic education!
— Nzioka Waita, MGH (@NziokaWaita) April 18, 2019
On Ist April, the High Court suspended the mandatory roll-out of Huduma Number preventing the government from forcing anyone to register in National Integrated Identity Management System (NIIMS) after Human Rights Bodies moved to court to seek its suspension. In the ruling, the High Court has also barred the government from issuing deadlines for the collection of NIIMS data.
But the Kenyan Government has been fighting tooth and nail to have the implementation of Huduma Number successful, even in the face of resistance from its citizens.
