The high court has declared the roll out of the Huduma Namba illegal, saying it contravened the data protection act.
During the ruling on Thursday, Justice Jairus Ngaah said the state had failed to conduct a data protection impact assessment prior to rolling out the cards.
“An order is hereby issued to bring into this honourable court to quash the government decision of November 18 2020 to roll out Huduma cards for being ultra vires of the data protection act 2019,” the court ruled.
Read: Gov’t Distributing 3.8m Huduma Namba Cards, Urges Kenyans to Act on Prompt Messages
The judge further ruled that the government has to carry out the data protection impact assessment before rolling out the cards.
“Order of mandamus is hereby issued compelling the government to conduct a data protection impact assessment in accordance with section 31 of the Data Protection Act before processing of data and rolling out the Huduma cards,” Judge Ngaah ordered.
The Katiba Institute moved to court last year challenging the state’s decision to roll out the cards without performing impact assessment.
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