Huduma Number: inevitable or an expensive, unnecessary undertaking?

IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER

I am not a government of Kenya employee OR spokesperson on the matter relating to the Central Population Database (CPD) a.k.a. National Integrated Information Management System (NIIMS).

My views are 1) personal 2) informed by my expertise in information systems’, and 3) baselined on the duty to contribute to and weigh-in on matters of public interest.

BACKGROUND

The Kenyan Government through the Ministry of Interior and Coordination of National Government has launched a pilot program to register and issue Kenyans with a Huduma Number (Huduma is Swahili for Services). The project is apparently supposed to “allow the government account better for its citizens and foreign nationals in the country whilst helping improve government services provision.”

Once the pilot is complete, the program will be rolled out nationally. All Kenyans and foreign nationals are required to cooperate and have their details captured into the NIIMS database.

The project will cost the tax payers a healthy amount of Kenya Shillings - in excess of 10B (Around 100M USD).

ANALYSIS

Whereas the need to have a central population database is noble and proven elsewhere, it is possible to build it technically in the case of Kenya from data that the government already has.

Let’s first restrict our conversation to existing or future Kenyan citizens (naturalisation or birth). Today, the government has a deluge of data about us in the following databases or information systems:

1)    The national registration database managed by the national registration bureau. This is the database that manages our national identification numbers. ID numbers are unique or rather should be unique. To me this is the master database and includes not just lineage and bio-data, it also has at least some biometric data in the form of fingerprints.

2)    For tax related needs, you certainly exist in the Kenya Revenue Authority tax-payers database or the so called i-Tax system. The PIN issued by KRA should be linked to the national registration database from day one. Key word is should.

3)    For every formal employee, the National Social Security Fund is mandatory a contribution. Meaning you already exist in the NSSF database. The existence in the NSSF database should be linked to the national registration database from day one. Key word is should.

4)    For every formal employee, the National Hospital Insurance Fund is mandatory a contribution. Meaning you already exist in the NHIF database. The existence in the NHIF database should be linked to the national registration database from day one. Key word is should.

5)    For every eligible voter, if registered, you already exist in the voter register/database managed by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC). Every entry in the voter register should be a child record linked to the parent record in the national registration database. Keyword is should.

6)    Every person that is born in Kenya is issued with a birth certificate. This means that there is a database that tracks the serials we see on the birth certificates. This birth registration database should ideally be linked on day one to the national registration database, with a delayed date for issue of a national identification card but with a unique tracing number because infants, young children and teens need access to public services just like adults. Key word is should.

7)    You can replace born/birth in point (6) with dies/death.

8)    Any person who drives a vehicle in Kenya should ideally have a valid license issued from the Transport Integrated Management System (TIMS) managed now by the National Transportation Safety Authority (NTSA). And I recently saw news that this again moves from ministry of transport to ministry of interior. The license number should ideally be linked to the national registration database. Key word is should.

9)    Effective recently, any person who goes through the Kenyan school system will be issued with a unique student tracking number. Meaning you will exist in the Ministry of Education Database of students. Your existence in the MoE database should ideally be linked to the national registration database. Key word is should.

QUESTION: DOES IT MAKE SENSE THEN TO GO FOR A NEW NUMBER DUBBED “HUDUMA NUMBER”?

My short answer is YES, but with a BIG BUT.

WHY YES?

We need a central reference number that links all of the relevant details about a citizen. This is the practice in countries that really manage their citizen data with completeness of vision. Meaning that the “shoulds” I alluded to in my analysis were considered long ago.

A citizen is issued with a unique identification number at birth. This number never changes throughout their life. Any documents issued to these citizens in their lifetime should reference the unique identification.

I am talking about documents like passports, identification documents, driver’s license, marriage certificates, death certificates, title deeds, Tax PIN certificates, Vehicle Log Books etc.).

Where possible and sensible, as many of these documents should be bundled into one. A good example is Drivers License + National ID + NHIF Proof Document + NSSF Proof Document + PIN Certificate Proof Document should be bundled into one.

It is times that change but the citizen is still the same.

Why BIG BUT?

The government doesn’t need to run the expensive project once again.

They already have a huge fraction of the data they need to create a master database. A data integration process should be undertaken at the ministry of interior to aggregate all data that the government already has around the national registration database.

In computing terms, we can define and computationally generate a surrogate number that is the HUDUMA NUMBER and link all aspects of the citizen to it. For citizens with a National or Military ID already, the ID should be rolled up to become their HUDUMA NUMBER. All other documents they have should be linked to it.

Newborns should be issued with a HUDUMA NUMBER from day one and this is the number that should appear on their birth certificates and any other documents they will be issued with in their lifetime.

Any missing biometric data should be captured progressively and used to enrich the national registration database, not to recreate it afresh.

CONCLUSION.

1)    The Huduma Number project rolled out by the ministry of Interior is a total waste of the taxpayers’ money.

2)    The data integration effort I talked about could have cost the government less than or equal to KES 1Billion even if a very competent system integrator were contracted. The approximated cost is based on experience sourcing similar services.

3)    With the master database formed, there would be no need to run a voter registration exercise every-time there is an election. This would save the government lots of money.

4)    All government entities and public service provision end points would simply reference the master database to serve the citizen.