Nubian Rights Forum & 2 others v Attorney General & 6 others; Child Welfare Society & 9 others (Interested Parties) [2020] eKLR 459. It was also his averment that NIIMS was modeled from the Estonian identity system in so far as both systems respectively keep a centralized national master population register in digital form, and decentralized functional databases that are linked to the said national master population register. However, whereas the Estonian identity system utilizes PIN-codes that are embedded in electronic identity cards for purposes of authenticating identities of individuals, NIIMS utilizes unique identification numbers. Further, that electronic identity cards work for Estonia because Estonia is a homogenous country with a significantly lower population and an advanced e-government infrastructure. Kenya, on the other hand, is a heterogeneous society that experiences significant exposures from migration from troubled neighboring countries which, in some cases, have no control over terrorism and its effects on their neighbors. Therefore, a more robust identity system that suits the peculiar circumstances of Kenya is justifiable. 460. Mr. Muchemi further observed that fingerprint matching, in itself, is probabilistic as opposed to deterministic and no sole biometric identity matching is deterministic. However, an amalgamation of matching of various biometrics and biographical information results in a multimodal system that is deterministic. In his view, the operational and architectural design of NIIMS addresses the probabilistic nature of fingerprint deduplication in a number of ways. The first is that samples of fingerprints are extracted from all available fingers of an individual during data collection and each finger has an individual unique print character. Therefore, if one or two fingers fail, the other fingers can positively identify an individual. 461. Secondly, where an individual does not have fingers or in the unlikely event that all the fingerprints of an individual cannot be captured, other identity modes including facial image, date of birth, residence and parentage information would, collectively, be used to uniquely identify such individuals. This, in itself, increases the probability of perfect fingerprint matching. In his view, it is the amalgamation of the various probabilistic identity elements that make NIIMS deterministic. 462. It was his averment further that distortion of all fingerprints during an individual’s lifetime on account of ageing, mutation or participation in manual labour is a rare occurrence because it is highly unlikely that one would come into contact with mutation-inducing radioactive materials in their lifetime. Secondly, manual labour is unlikely to cause distortion of all fingerprints of an individual’s non-dominant hand. Further, that it is common scientific knowledge that human skin cells have a lifespan of a couple of months and are constantly replenished. In his view therefore, ageing does not distort an individual’s fingerprints. 463. Mr. Muchemi deposed that during registration in multimodal identity system, biometric information and biographical information of an individual are captured, templatized and stored in a national master population register. Secondly, before one is enrolled and thereafter issued with a unique identifier, his biometrics and biographical information is matched against the templates of individuals already registered in the aforesaid national master population register. Consequently, capturing a registrant’s identity information and matching it against every other registrant’s who has previously enrolled ensures that each person gets a single - one and only one unique number and this verification procedure is impossible to attain in a non-digital system. Therefore Huduma Namba is a composite number that amalgamates the myriad of numbers that an individual citizen has from cradle to grave and will serve as a unique identifier to every citizen and registered foreign national resident in Kenya. 464. Mr. Muchemi further averred that inclusion of children in a national master population register is justified by the need for the government to offer service delivery more efficiently without prejudice to any section of its citizenry. He averred that infant biometric identification is now possible owing to technological advancement such as non-contact optical scanning technology that can uniquely identify infants at birth by imaging fingers and the palm of the hand. However, if for whatever reason, infant biometrics are unreliable, infants would still be sufficiently identified by connecting them to their parents who are themselves uniquely identifiable by their respective biometrics. It was his averment that for the purposes of resource allocation by government as well as accounting for all citizens for the purposes of service delivery, it is imperative to connect children to their parents. http://www.kenyalaw.org - Page 68/174