it to his father, now deceased, who held all
family legal documents.
Ochieng, in the tradition learnt from his
father, also holds the birth certificates of all
his children. The irony is that at the moment
his children can apply for the e-Passport
but he can’t because he cannot trace his own
birth certificate.
Being pragmatic and knowing his way
around Ochieng sets off to the Registration
of Persons bureau to get a copy of the said
birth certificate. After some considerable
queuing to get attended at the information
desk Ochieng is facing an attractive lady
who asks how she can be of assistance.
Ochieng explains that he needs a copy of his
birth certificate to apply for his e-Passport
to which the lady responds by asking if he
has a photocopy, patiently Ochieng explains
that if he indeed had that document he
would not have been in front of her.
The last word is that
Kenyans are not sus-
picious by nature,
but the government
is incredibly inept at
communicating its
projects and hence
the general feeling
that we are about to
be conned again. Is
the government also
aware that it may be
supporting projects
that actually pro-
mote corruption?
number is unique and so is his passport.
That is why even banks use the documents
to verify ones identity. But from the
government’s explanation it appears that
that is not true, so there might be several
Ochiengs out there with an identical ID.
Ochieng still being pragmatic decided
that if the Huduma Namba is key to
accessing government services then
he would be wise to register. What is
puzzling is that the very documents that
they have thrown doubt at are the very
ones they are requiring one to present.
Ochieng was crestfallen when he saw
that one of the documents he requires
for the Huduma Namba registration is
a birth certificate which he had been
trying to get a copy of. The government
merry go round had started in earnest
once again.
only explain but to even show him fresh
certificates that he had obtained that
morning from the bureau for people who
had lost, misplaced of never had birth
certificates. Ochieng still went ahead to a Huduma
Namba registration center, aware that
the government has already invested
into the exercise and the courts had
removed some requirement but allowed
the registration to proceed.
Ochieng explained that what he needed
was a copy since he already had a birth
certificate, a new certificate would mean
double registration, the broker laughed and
informed him that his offer was what was
expedient as the archives were in a mess
that is why they were not volunteering to
look. At the center he was informed that as
soon as he gets his Huduma Namba
he will be able to apply for a birth
certificate, again he informed them that
he does not require a birth certificate
as he already had one but a copy of the
same. Apparently the government had
not foreseen all scenarios.
The lady helpfully suggested that the
easiest person to help him would be the
immigration department since they had
his file and there are only about 2.5 million
Kenyans with passports as opposed to 45
million Kenyans where he was asking her to
search for the birth certificate. Ochieng was trying to mentally calculate
just how many double registrations there
were given the Kenyan penchant for the
short cut when the broker informed him
that he also has a cousin at immigration
and for a small fee he could extract a copy
of the birth certificate. Ochieng now remembered that to vote
the government had collected biometric
data and even issued a voting card which
later became redundant.
Some enterprising broker must have been
listening to the conversation because as
soon as Ochieng thanked the lady for not
helping him, attractive ladies have that
effect on men, the man approached him and
asked to have a word. Ochieng took his number and promised to
revert soon with an intention of going to
immigration to ask for a copy of his birth
certificate since all he was trying to do was
to apply for his e-Passport. To his surprise
he was informed that the public cannot
access the registry.
Her next automatic question was if Ochieng
knows the number of the birth certificate
followed by a similar explanation that had
he known the number then he would not
have been at the bureau. All Ochieng had,
was his ID.
The lady sweetly informed him that the
ID was not sufficient to trace his birth
certificate. On inquiring further Ochieng
realized that that crucial bureau was not
digitized and even more worrisome it was
not linked to his ID even though that is the
document that was used to issue an ID.
He confessed that he had overheard the
predicament but fortunately there was a
solution. He informed Ochieng that he had
come across many Kenyans with a similar
predicament and for a small fee, he would
procure a birth certificate for him to solve
the problem.
Intrigued Ochieng asked him how he
would do that and he proceeded to not
96 MAL29/19 ISSUE
Meanwhile the press has informed
Ochieng that he requires to register for
a new unique Huduma Namba which he
was told will be necessary to access any
government service and was launched by
the President although the registration
exercise has been challenged in court.
Ochieng always thought that his ID
Are we likely to be on a similar exercise
where data is collected and collated only
to be discarded or is there a sinister plot?
E-Voting did not save us from the
shenanigans of claims of stolen elections
and certainly we could not access the
servers to settle the dispute. Is it because
we had no rights of access or is it because
the data was tampered with? Could that
become the fate of the Huduma Namba?
The last word is that Kenyans are not
suspicious by nature, but the government
is incredibly inept at communicating its
projects and hence the general feeling
that we are about to be conned again.
Is the government also aware that it
may be supporting projects that actually
promote corruption?