The Government of Japan has donated equipment worth Sh50.8 million to boost Kenya’s digitized and secure identity management systems.
The equipment comprising computers, servers and ICT materials which will be distributed across Civil Registration Service departments.
Interior CS Karanja Kibicho said the equipment from the government of Japan and the UNDP will help in the digital registration of births which will have a positive impact on the country’s future digital national government planning.
Read: KRA Receives Surveillance Equipment Donation from Japan Government
“We are grateful to UNDP and the government of Japan for the kind donation. The equipment will go to deserving field registries across the country so that we can push registration of births from 82.9 per cent to the 100 per cent global target.” Kibicho said.
He added that the Ministry was also aiming to improve death registrations from the current 62 percent to 85 percent.
Kibicho said that donation was a demonstration of the UN’s belief in Kenya’s efforts to integrate and automate civil registration services and in the formulation of the NIIMS/Huduma Namba legal framework.
“We have discussed the importance of data integration and the circumstances surrounding the project. We hope to proceed to Phase II of mass registration once we get over the current hurdles in the form of court cases so that we can register the 12 million Kenyans who were not captured during the first phase,” the PS said.
Read also: Japanese Companies, Employees To Be Exempted From Paying Income Tax In Kenya
The second round of the Huduma Namba registration process was expected to kick off this year. Citizens who registered in the first phase have been receiving their cards still last year. The process was halted mid this year after a court declared the process illegal.
UNDP’s Resident Representative Walid Badawi said Kenya had been selected as a pilot for the UN’s One Legal Identity Agenda that aims to eliminate global statelessness.
The Program aims to ensure inclusive development by applying the SDG 16 that seeks to provide legal identity for all, including birth registration by 2030.
“Such equipment will go a long way to achieving the global averages. We applaud the tremendous success Kenya has demonstrated on the continent and the world, but it will only work if the government continues taking the lead,” Badawi said.
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