The government is considering an aggressive campaign to raise Sh1bn daily on ECitizen

NAIROBI, Kenya, May 8 – The government is targeting at least Sh1 billion daily revenue on eCitizen by December by increasing the number of subscribers on its digital services platform to 30 million.

Immigration and Citizen Services PS Julius Bitok said the revenue figure will increase from the current Sh700 million by increasing the number of Citizen users from 13 million.

He said the department will achieve the goal by ensuring everyone is eligible
Kenyans are provided with an ID required to register an eCitizen account.

Also targeted is an aggressive publicity campaign that will profile the benefits
from eCitizen, such as the convenience offered by 24-hour access to over 16,000 online government services, regardless of the customer’s physical location.

“On average, we register about 20,000 to 30,000 people every day. We are
at 13 million and we look at the entire population of Kenya, which is 32
million adults. We are halfway through and within one to two years we should have done that
anyone with a digital ID.”

He was speaking at the Network of Africa Data Protection Associations
(NADPA) conference in Nairobi. Kenya, via the Office of the Data
Conservation Commissioner, is hosting this year’s annual event.

The focus of the three-day conference is on the way African governments invest
in the digitalization of services while ensuring inclusion, data protection and data
privacy.

Prof Bitok said the abolition of vetting committees for the issuance of IDs is in line
border communities starting this month are intended to make it easy for everyone
Kenyan to access a digital national identity and its associated benefits.

“We have removed the check on identity documents, which is an attempt to ensure that
no Kenyan is left out or discriminated against when it comes to obtaining the documents
Worried.”

The government is also focusing on the new digital identity card, also known as
the Maisha Card and the supporting ecosystem to provide a registration regime
that is better protected against counterfeiting and identity theft.

According to the PS, the Unique Personal Identification is also known as the Maisha
Namba, which will be a lifelong song, will negate the need for anything else
government institutions to collect personal data that is susceptible to breaches.

“There are four components to this digital ID ecosystem. Maisha number, given
to newborns who will last their entire lives, in primary school, in high school,
university, NSSF and NHIF and will appear in one’s death certificate.”

To protect the large amounts of data involved in eCitizen operations, the PS
mentioned periodic data impact assessments, data security audits and mandatory
MoUs are concluded with third party data handlers.

Data Protection Commissioner Immaculate Kassait said her office welcomed it
efforts by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to ensure data security
privacy concerns.