The Huduma Namba registration exercise was carried out about two years ago.
Those who registered for the document did not receive it after several months, and it was then revealed that the process would take a longer time than expected.
In 2020, the government said that it would rollout another registration exercise, but it did not happen as many had hoped.
The second phase was planned to see more registrations because millions of Kenyans are still to apply for the card.
For housekeeping purposes, Huduma Namba is a system that seeks to register all Kenyans under a new database. The registration process requires a ton of information from the user, including biometric data. The need for all that information has been questioned, probably because at the registration time, the state did not have any Data Protection laws (the Data Protection Bill was signed in late 2019, and has since seen the establishment of the Data Commissioner office).
Towards the end of 2020, ICT CS Joe Mucheru revealed that the cards will eventually phase out ID cards, meaning that at one time, all Kenyans will be required to pick up the cards.
Issuance was expected to start in December, following the announcement that the government was printing the documents.
However, registered Kenyans have only been alerted today to collect their cards from Huduma Centres, which, as said, is almost two years late.
Huduma Centres are issuing the cards to Nairobi residents in a pilot program For Nairobi Huduma Centres only.
Those whose cards are ready will be alerted via SMS.
The pilot program means that other Huduma Centres will be in line in the coming days.
“Hello. Kindly note that the cards are currently being issued in Nairobi alone. You will receive communication once the programme has been fully launched,” says Huduma Kenya in a statement.
