Amid contestations that Kenya’s last four elections since 2007 were rigged, the focus has shifted to the role the identity cards play in the said vice.

The concern arose after the Generation Zoomers, commonly known as Gen Z put the government in a tight spot from June to date over the issue of governance—and threatened to register as voters en masse to put their own in power.

Thousands of Kenyan youth are lining up at Huduma (Service) Centres to pick up their ID cards in various cities like Nairobi, Kisumu, Mombasa, Nakuru, and Kisii, but with no success.

The government is not explaining why IDs, a symbol of Kenyan citizenship, should be stuck in a rut; yet, they have paid for their right.

This has led the opposition and civil society to question the motive of William Ruto’s government’s inordinate delay in issuing IDs and passports—contrary to what happened during former president Uhuru Kenyatta.

Voter registration depends on the provision of national IDs, and any delays may have an effect on voter turnout and election integrity in general.

 Analysts say that the delay could be a result of several factors such as possible political intentions, logistical difficulties, and bureaucracy, and an incompetent workforce that has been put in place courtesy of political rewards and ethnicity.

There is a backlog of 900,000 applications—and growing daily—which is capable of tilting the election results given that the difference between Ruto and his main opponent Raila Odinga in 2022 was only 200,000.

The government has come up with several explanations ranging from system breakdown, and lack of printing papers to the various court injunctions over the Maisha Namba(Life Number)—a rather controversial move to change IDs from Second Generation to chip-based Third Generation.

Immigration and Citizenship Services Principal Secretary Julius Bitok, says that the country is experiencing delays due to the breakdown of equipment and the perennial court orders since December 2023 that have blocked the production of new digital ID cards—Maisha Namba since 2003.

But Kenyans are asking pertinent questions. Why was the equipment not breaking down during Kenyatta’s time, and why is the Ruto government insisting on the chip-based Third Generations IDs—which most Kenyans and the courts agree is being driven by globalists for data mining?

The delay in the issuance of the ID cards is not only denying the youth who have reached the age of 18 their rights, it also blocks them from taking up job opportunities locally and abroad, cannot process their passport and are sitting duck to the corrupt Kenyan police when they walk the streets for lack of identification.

“I applied for the document on January 3 but every time I come to collect it I am told it is not ready. I can’t even land a job because I don’t have the necessary identification documents,” said Katana Kazungu”, a resident of Kilifi Town, some 524km from the capital Nairobi.

Mr Kazungu says he occasionally travels from his native Kilifi to the coastal city of Mombasa (72km) to check the progress of his passport for the last seven months, and every time, the officials are either not cooperating, not in the office or hinting at Kitu Kidogo—the Kenyan euphemism for bribery.

The National Registration Bureau (NRB) maintains that it has issued 972,630 Maisha Namba with 531,329 new applications and 441,301 duplicates.  The NRB says that more than 138,000 are uncollected, despite the many queues across the country for collection telling a different story. 

Mr Bitok told the country that in the face of the current crisis, the NRB has acquired a modern printer and enhanced the printing capacity to 30,000 National ID cards per day to reduce the backlog.

But here is the catch; Kenyans are questioning why the government is insisting on Maisha Namba—which is still experimental at the expense of the Second Generation ID which used to take one month to process.

The Maisha Number has been very controversial at a time when even hundreds of thousands of elderly citizens in rural areas are yet to graduate to the Second Generation.

Maisha Number replaced the failed Huduma Namba (Service Number) project that was introduced in 2019 during the Kenyatta reign at the cost of $11.4 million, but whose results have not been seen to date.

 Much of the opposition to Maisha Number—besides being pushed by the Western globalists—is that is an avenue for corruption for the new regime.

In December of 2023, the High Court froze the issuance of ID cards, also known as Maisha Namba, following an application filed by Katiba Institute.

However, the High Court in February 2024 removed the injunction barring the government from issuing new digital identity cards.

Yet, on July 26, the High Court suspended any further rollout of the new digital identity cards popularly known as Maisha Namba. The suspension is pending the determination of a case filed by the Haki na Sheria Initiative.

Justice Lawrence Mugambi issued the order saying it would be difficult to remedy damage caused if the court eventually finds the process unconstitutional.

“The court is satisfied that based on the latest disclosure, an order suspending any further or continued implementation of Maisha Namba, Maisha card and Maisha Database pending hearing and determination of this application ought to be issued,” the judge said.

Critics argue that the system posed significant privacy risks due to the extensive personal data being collected. 

There were concerns about data protection measures and the potential for misuse of information—especially possible sale to the globalists that are determined to control the world through technology, food, and to build a “One World Government”.

Mr Bitok defends Maisha Namba arguing that just like other documents such as ATM cards, the microchip has a shelf life of a maximum of 10 years from the date of issuance.

 “This is a standard practice in countries such as Uganda, Tanzania, Nigeria, Senegal and France, among others that have implemented an ID with microchip,” he told the media.

It does not help matters that the government had proposed an increase in the renewal of ID cards from $ 0.76 to $15. But since the start of the Gen Z protests that started on June 18 over corruption, opulence and lack of good governance, Maisha Number is in for serious suspicion.

Former Cabinet Secretary for Information, Communication, and Digital Economy Eliud Owalo—who was among the casualties when Ruto dismissed the entire cabinet on July 11—gave a rather vague explanation to a rather sceptic public.

He said that the objective of Huduma Nama was to put in place a digital population database, while Maisha Namba is meant to come up with a means of verification that citizens are the persons they claim to be

“We are putting government services on a technological platform because that is the only means through which we can enhance efficiency and effectiveness in service delivery,” he said then.

Just like Maisha Namba which Kenyans suspect is election-related, Huduma Namba was introduced too close to the Elections so people became suspicious about it because perhaps it had certain links to the election processes.