Nubian Rights Forum & 2 others v Attorney General & 6 others; Child Welfare Society & 9 others (Interested Parties) [2020] eKLR documents, universal healthcare, fertilizer subsidies, cash transfers, affordable housing and education. 79. Referring to a report titled Statelessness and Citizenship in the East African Community by the United Nation High Commission for Refugees dated September 2018, he stated that the Kenya Government continues to subject its citizens of Asian, Somali, and Muslim heritage to vetting procedures prior to issuing identity documents. While the vetting is intended to counteract fraudulent acquisition of documents, it was his averment that the same controls are not applied to other ethnic groups. He averred that this had resulted in many people in the targeted groups remaining without national identity cards. 80. Mr. Shafi averred that the current registration system for identity cards, which is a simpler system, has complications for residents in marginalized areas who cannot access services, either due to discrimination or lack of resources. Further, that the Registration of Persons Act allows for the establishment of “identification committees” by the Registrar for the purpose of “authentication of information”, whose composition and nature is increasingly security-based, reflecting a widely observed trend towards systematic state surveillance of the population. 81. It was therefore Mr. Shafi’s averment that since these historical issues have not been addressed, rolling out a more complicated process of registration will only serve to increase the difficulties. His view was that there is a danger of people from such communities being left out of the registration, which will render them unable to access any public facilities, leading to discrimination in violation of the Constitution. 82. While referring to the kipande system which he termed as a “diabolical system of fingerprints”, Mr. Shafi deposed that the history of identity systems is that they are not universal but are used to monitor, exclude and even to assimilate or “erase” specific groups. He expressed the view that the capture of biometric information has also tended to intrude deeper into people’s lives during moments of crisis, actual or perceived, and to target specific groups on the basis of ethnicity. He cited as an example the fact that during the Mau emergency period, the authorities began collecting full fingerprints as opposed to just a single digit or thumbprint, imposing this new system on all “members of the Kikuyu and allied tribes.” He cited in support an article by Keith Breckenridge titled The Failure of the “Single Source of Truth about Kenyans” : The National Digital Registry System, Collateral Mysteries and the Safaricom monopoly dated 23rd August 2017. 83. Mr. Shafi averred that Kenya’s civil registration system has been harshly criticized by international institutions like the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the United Nations Committee on Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD), as well as national bodies, such as the Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission (TJRC), the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission and the Commission on the Administration of Justice. Further, that the discriminatory impact of identity registration practices in Kenya upon national minorities has also faced criticism. He cited the TJRC report as demonstrating that Muslims in particular “suffered discrimination for decades in relation to their right to citizenship and associated identity documents.” 84. Turning specifically to the Kenyan Nubian community, Mr. Shafi averred that the community had filed complaints with the African Union institutions in the cases of Nubian Community in Kenya vs Kenya and Children of Nubian Descent in Kenya vs Kenya in which decisions were rendered that found Kenya’s registration and identity documentation practices discriminatory and infringed the rights of members of the community. Further, that specific recommendations were made to the Kenyan government to cure the violations. 85. Relying on a study carried out by the Open Society Foundation in 2015 titled Legal Identity in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development: Lessons from Kibera Mr. Shafi averred that empirical research has confirmed that inability to access documentation of citizenship in Kenya results in serious restrictions on one’s ability to enjoy rights and freedoms guaranteed in the Constitution and international and regional human rights instruments. According to Mr. Shafi, the study revealed that “in Kenya a national identity card issued at age 18, http://www.kenyalaw.org - Page 14/174