Editor's Review

The High Court has suspended the issuance of new digital Identity cards.

The High Court has suspended the issuance of new digital Identity cards following an application filed by Katiba Institute.

Justice John Chigiti while issuing the orders on Tuesday, December 5, urged the government not to register persons or issue the new generation IDs.

Katiba moved to court challenging the government's decision to roll out the new digital IDs before conducting a data protection impact assessment. 

Katib argued that Section 31 of the Data Protection Act requires the Respondents to conduct a data protection impact assessment in a scenario where data processing is likely to result in a high risk to the rights and freedoms of a data subject by its nature, scope, context, and purposes. 

"Mandamus compelling the Respondents to conduct a data protection impact assessment per section 31 of the Data Protection Act before piloting or rolling out the Maisha Namba, including the digital card, digital ID, unique personal identifier, and National Master Population Register", the Institute argued.

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File image of a Huguma Namba card. 

Justice Chigita directed Katiba the application be served to the respondents within 7 days for the interpartes hearing of prayer.

The case will be mentioned on February 6, 2024 with a view to securing a judgment date.

The new generation IDs were set to be launched by President William Ruto this month. The IDs were previously scheduled to be launched by the Head of State on October 2, 2023 at Nakuru Athletic Club but the government postponed the event due to unavoidable circumstances.