Nubian Rights Forum & 2 others v Attorney General & 6 others; Child Welfare Society & 9 others (Interested Parties) [2020] eKLR married at 18 years of age or younger lacked a birth certificate. a) It was the 8th Interested Party’s case that digital identification has three benefits. The first was time and cost savings. Mr. Orengo stated that institutions using high-assurance identification for registration could see up to 90% cost reduction in customer on-boarding, with the time taken for these interactions reduced from days or week to minutes by enabling streamlined authentication to improve the customer experience in digital channels. The second benefit lay in fraud savings. It was averred that digital identification can help reduce fraud in a wide range of transactions, from decreased payroll fraud in worker interactions to reduced identity fraud in consumer and taxpayer and beneficiary interactions. A third benefit lay in increased tax collection. It was its position that greater revenue facilitated by digital identification could expand the tax base, helping promote formalization of the economy and more effective tax collection. Its position was that emerging economies, in particular, could experience substantial benefits. 522. Dr. Orengo also averred that the Huduma Namba generated by NIIMS will greatly deter payroll fraud known locally as the “ghost workers” problem which has been afflicting management of public funds in Kenya for several decades. He cited digital listing of police officers as having weeded out nearly 2600 ghost workers in the police force, saving the country approximately Sh1.7 billion in future annual wages. 523. It was Dr. Orengo’s statement that a digital identification system such as the Huduma Namba can also unlock non-economic value, potentially furthering progress toward ideals that cannot be captured through quantitative analysis, including those of inclusion, rights protection and transparency. It was his view that such a system can promote increased and more inclusive access to education, healthcare and labour markets; can aid safe migration and can contribute to greater levels of civic participation. Further, that such a system is an indispensable tool in assisting the State to progressively implement Article 43 of the Constitution which is practically impossible to implement without accurate and credible data. It was also his averment that a digital identification system such as Huduma Namba can help enforce rights nominally enshrined in law. He illustrated this contention with the case of India, stating that the right of residents to claim subsidized food through ration shops is protected because their identity and claim is authenticated through a remote digital identification system, rather than at the discretion of local officials. 524. Dr. Orengo also deposed that transparency is another benefit of a digital identification system such as Huduma Namba. He contended that an accurate, up-to-date death registration system can help to curb social protection fraud, and that a reliable authentic voter registry is essential to reduce voter fraud and ensure the overall integrity of the electoral process. He gave an example of Pakistan as having updated its voter rolls with strong biometric controls that resulted in the inclusion of an additional 36 million new eligible voters as well as the elimination of 13 million entries with invalid identities, 9 million duplicates and 15 million entries without verifiable identities. He contended that a verifiable unique number that includes biometric markers, such as Huduma Namba, should not only address the accuracy and credibility of the voters register once and for all but also save the country billions of shillings that are used every 5 years to clean up the voters register and register new voters. 525. According to Dr. Orengo an integrated digital identification can also be used in the provision of e-government services and benefits, expanding access and saving time for citizens while reducing costs for governments and improving social welfare, when compared to existing physical touch points. His view therefore was that the benefits of an integrated digital identification programme far outweighed violation of individual privacy rights for which adequate remedies are provided in law. Further, that the risks associated with digital identification systems can be mitigated. 526. On the requirement of GPS coordinates by the impugned law, Dr. Orengo deposed that this is not anything new but has in fact been a requirement of the Land Registration Act and the Land Act since 2012 when the two statutes were enacted as law without any opposition from the Petitioners or any other Kenyans. He cited various http://www.kenyalaw.org - Page 78/174