Why leaders are against the Huduma listing, referendum

The ongoing Huduma number listing and planned census scheduled for August this year, came under heavy criticism during the fourth Annual Legislative Summit.

Delegates attending the summit that ended in Kisumu on Thursday, faulted the Huduma listing exercise even as they questioned safety of the data of millions of Kenyans.

They claimed billions of taxpayers’ money will be lost in the two exercises, arguing that the same information collected by the National Integrated Identity Management Systems (NIIMS) can also be collected during the census.

Bungoma Senator Moses Wetang’ula sparked off the debate when he questioned why the government settled on the exercise despite budgeting for the census.

“The big question is, why are we conducting the Huduma listing which is costing taxpayer’s billions in the same year we are also conducting the census?” posed Wetangula.

He faulted the government for failing to keep a clean record of data for Kenyans as well as having in place adequate parameters to ensure that data is safe.

While the government has confirmed this year’s census will be conducted on August 24 and 25, Hudumaregistration is currently underway in all 47 counties.

The system seeks to give Kenyans a unique code, Huduma Namba, but has been subject of dispute. NIIMs is meant to be a one-stop shop that creates, manages, maintains and operates a national register of personal details.

Mary Njoroge, a delegate from Nakuru claimed the exercise is also time consuming and wondered why the government has not considered merging it with the planned census. “The government should consider adoption of technology to save time,” said Njoroge.