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A Bill calling for the issuance of national identity cards to secondary school students has run into headwinds.
The Law Society of Kenya (LSK) and the Immigration Services yesterday argued that the proposal presented data privacy concerns and could lead to the disruption of the school calendar.
The National Registration Bureau Secretary, Gilbert Kitiyo, told the National Assembly Committee on Administration and Internal Security that the collection of biometric and personal data from minors was not viable under the existing law.
He also explained that the department has always conducted registration of eligible students upon arrangements with the school administration.
“Since the department is now using live capture units which process and transmit data to the production centre in real time, it is not viable to collect information of underage persons,” he submitted.
The secretary further raised concerns over the interference with the school calendar. “The legal amendment should cause a consequential amendment to the Education Act to provide specifics like setting aside time in the school calendar to allow for the registration exercise,” added Kitiyo.
The LSK representative Ruth Nyaberi argued that Bill was silent on data protection, and proposed a clause to secure mining of minors’ data.
But the sponsor of the Registration of Persons (amendment) Bill, Suba South MP Caroli Omondi, defended its significance, noting that it would ensure that approximately three million students eligible for IDs got them.
In his submissions before the House team, Omondi argued that early registration would "streamline identification processes and ease access to essential services” on completion of their secondary school studies.
“IDs are not only identification documents but key documents in job recruitment and accessing various government services. That is why we should have it issued to all eligible youths in schools,” he said.
“We will also be solving the constitutional principles of fairness and equity, and nobody will be discriminated against.”
The lawmaker cited other countries such as Rwanda, South Africa and India, which have established similar laws.
The Bill proposes that all eligible students are identified by the last day of August every year. The registrar would then collect all the necessary details between September and December to complete the registration process.
Under the proposed law, the students would not be charged and would have their IDs delivered to their schools or a designated location if they have already graduated.
Should the Bill get the nod, it could increase the number of registered voters by about one million each year.
Among the services that the ID would ease is the transitioning of hundreds of thousands of students completing secondary school, who the Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service and the Higher Education Loans Board require to have the document for placement to universities and colleges.
Ideally, the passage of the Bill would also simplify the work of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission, which has long struggled with the registration of youth as new voters.
Committee Vice Chairperson Dido Raso said the team would retreat to consider the stakeholders before presenting a report on the floor of the House.
