Kenya’s Interior Principal Secretary Karanja Kibicho testified in court that it was compulsory to have a national identification card for persons above 18 years and a birth certificate for under 18 for one’s data to be gathered under the National Integrated Information Management System (NIIMS).
Dr. Kibicho testified before a three-judge bench composed of Justices Weldon Korir, Mumbi Ngugi and Pauline Nyamweya on Wednesday where lawyers representing the petitioners in the NIIMS case grilled him on a wide range of issues, including the safety of the data collected and its privacy practices among others.
Kibicho told the court that the reason the Government executed the registration of the Huduma Namba was for purposes of ‘digitization’. “We digitized everything apart from the population register and therefore, to complete the agenda of Government, NIIMS was created as the missing link.”
He further said it was meant to clean up the existing registration system which had been ‘adulterated’ over time.
When pressed on how on whether the principles on data protection, fairness, lawfulness, and transparency were fulfilled, Dr. Kibicho said, “The existing data protection policy is not tailored for NIIMS.” However, he admitted that it does and it must have a Data Controller.
According to Dr. Kibicho, the data controller for NIIMS is the Director of the National Registration Bureau.
1/3. A Data controller by definition is someone who determines the purpose for collecting and the scope of the data collected. In my view that is very high up the levels of PS and above. The PS or CS would be the appropriate Data Controller.
— J. Walu, OGW (@JWalu) October 2, 2019
