Duplicated registration misses point - Business Daily

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Duplicated registration misses point

Sunday, April 28, 2019 21:54

By COLLINS ODOTE

Kenyans have been racing against time this past month to register and obtain a Huduma Namba. While the Government speaks about the benefits of the process, skepticism dogs the process.

First, it took court action for some details to be omitted from being collected. Secondly, there is still widespread ignorance of what the number is about, its utility and the consequence of either obtaining it or not.

Amid these there are reports from several government quarters warning of dire but unspecified consequences for those who fail to register and obtain the number

To be sure, the process is going on and all indications are that we will surpass the 20 million mark as projected by the Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i.

The utility of the system should be seen against past discussions on the benefits of having an integrated registration system. It does not make sense to have different registration systems. It not only costs money, it duplicates data and brings confusion. One would hope that the idea behind Huduma Namba would be to start moving the country in this direction. But, does it?

The above question is legitimate for several reasons. First, the process is going on just a few months to the National Population and Household census.

Census data is important for planning and resource allocation. The fact that census will still be undertaken in August, a few months after this Huduma process can only mean that the two processes are distinct. However, details on the distinction is hard to fathom or come by. Would it not have been possible to create some linkages between the two?

Thirdly, the place of technology. Kenya is reeling from the huge cost of its 2017 elections. Indeed, Kenyan elections are recorded among the most expensive in the world. This is partly attributable to the cost of technology for voter registration, identifying them during voting day and to eventually transmit results.

Less than two years after this we are procuring other technology for Huduma Namba. What is even more intriguing is that the supplier of the technology was the same one during the 2017 elections. One wonders whether we are interested in integration and cost saving or if this is purely rent seeking.

To add onto the registration complexity, the country still must undertake a boundary delimitation as mandate by the Constitution. The delimitation will require census data as the raw materialh. It is, therefore, important that the challenges that faced the last census be ironed out to ensure integrity of the process this time round.

While the Huduma process is ongoing, some citizens are skeptical that the data being collected may be used for mischief, although the bulk of this data is with the government already.

It is important that Government carry its citizenry along in such activities. In the Huduma case awareness and information dissemination was done too late, too little and too haphazardly. Indeed, the government was largely reacting to public concerns.

This same approach seems to be facing the upcoming census. Leaders of counties, from both the executive and legislature, complain about the lack of structured and clear engagement by the national government, yet they should play a critical role in the process.

The government may mean well, but it is important to listen to the concern from its citizenry and improve the thinking around registration, avoid duplication, save costs and enhance efficiency.

This should necessitate a national conversation with a view to designing and implementing an integrated national population registration system. In these discussions we need to situate the ongoing Huduma numbers. This way we will have a more sustainable and coordinated system and avoid the current perceptions of lack of clarity and long-term utility of the ongoing process.