State rules out mischief in biometric registration

Interior principal secretary Karanja Kibicho

The government has ruled out any mischief or suspicion in the ongoing pilot project on National Integrated Identity Management System (NIIMS) programme.

Interior principal secretary Karanja Kibicho said that the program was meant for registration purposes only and not for other motives as a section of people have alleged.

There have been speculation that there was ill motive in the program on sampling DNAs for residents as well as taking of blood samples.

"The ultimate objective of this program is to establish a central master population register that will be the authentic single source of truth for a person’s identity. There is no other motive behind this and those propagating lies about this project should stop" he said.

Dr Karanja Kibicho now said 31,500 biometric registration kits have been delivered ahead of the pilot exercise, which is scheduled for February 15, 2019, across 15 counties. These include; Nairobi, Uasin Gishu, Kajiado, Baringo, Marsabit, Embu, Makueni, Busia, Nyandarua, Kiambu, Kisii, Kilifi, Tana River, Kisumu, and Wajir.

"The Government has also arranged for a technical training workshop on the operation of the kits before the official rollout of the mass registration of all Kenyan citizens and foreign nationals living in the country later in March" he said.

He called on Kenyans not to fear and volunteer themselves to register saying this will also help the government to deliver services to the people. He spoke at Wanjohi trading center in Nyandarua where the launch was held.

Chiefs and Assistant Chiefs will lead this drive through door-to-door campaigns, mobile registration centres and visits to institutional facilities,he added.

Principal Secretary for Ict Jerome Ochieng who accompanied him said the scope of the registration exercise will focus on external personally-identifying information (PII), with fingerprints and retinal scans as the only physical biometrics that will be captured to help identify individuals with appreciable accuracy.

The information will be captured using the biometric kits and data capture forms, and will involve one-on-one interviews with those to be registered.

Governor Francis Kimemia who was present called on Nyandarua people to turn up in large numbers and register.

"This is the way to go for every Kenyan to get a single number for registration. Nyandarua people should be at the forefront for we have been given the priority" he said.

He promised a three million borehole for the sub location that will lead on the registration."This will also be used for planning purposes, enhance existing National Registration databases in Kenya and help institutions harmonize persons’ identity data across different domains for easy access to government services" he said.