Nubian Rights Forum & 2 others v Attorney General & 6 others; Child Welfare Society & 9 others (Interested Parties) [2020] eKLR 319. In response to the Petitions, the 2nd and 3rd Respondents filed three Replying Affidavits all sworn by Dr. (Eng). Karanja Kibicho, CBS, on 26th February 2019. They also filed a Further Affidavit sworn by the same deponent on 14th of May 2019. The 2nd and 3rd Respondents also filed a further affidavit sworn by Janet Mucheru on 26th February, 2019. 320. Dr. Kibicho deposed that he is one of the three Principal Secretaries in the Ministry of Interior & Coordination of National Government. He is also, pursuant to section 9A(3) of the Registration of Persons Act (as amended by Statute Law (Miscellaneous Amendments) Act No. 18 of 2018), the administrator of NIIMS. It was his averment that the government of Kenya has a responsibility to provide services to the people of Kenya and in order to fulfil its legal and constitutional responsibility, it requires adequate planning which in turn requires reliable data regarding its citizens and other persons within the country. 321. He deposed that collection of data and making it easily accessible for utilization by the government and other relevant stakeholders is therefore of paramount importance. It was his deposition that the government has been collecting relevant data from its citizens through multiple registration systems at different phases of an individual’s life from birth to death by disparate agencies, thereby leading to duplication of efforts and wastage of resources. He averred that some of the government agencies would collect information from individuals but without any unique identifiers such as fingerprints thereby risking the accuracy and reliability of such information. 322. Dr. Kibicho stated that the existence of multiple population registration systems undertaken by disparate agencies under independent legislations resulted in a number of challenges. He identified these challenges as including duplication of efforts; wastage of public resources; incomplete population data; inefficient coordination and linkage of registration agencies; cases of identity fraud; and limited capacity to share information due to the manual storage of information. 323. He deposed that in light of the above challenges, the government, in 1989, conceptualised the development of one national population register as a single source of truth on the identity of individual citizens and foreign nationals residing in Kenya. It was his averment that although there has been some progress, this objective has not been met, and currently, approximately ten institutions which were collecting information from Kenyans in 1989 still do so and maintain mostly segmented and parallel databases. Dr. Kibicho stated that the NIIMS system was the culmination of the vision for a single national population register. 324. Dr. Kibicho narrated the events and steps that preceded the introduction of NIIMS since the initial concept in 1989. One of the key components of the initial idea was the creation of a National Population Register (NPR). In the year 2000, a concept paper was developed by the Office of the President for what would then become the Integrated Population Registration System (IPRS). In 2001, the concept paper was approved by the Cabinet which gave the go-ahead to the Office of the President and the Ministry of Finance to start the project. In 2002, the Office of the President initiated the development of its Information Communication Technology (ICT) Policy Framework and Strategic Implementation Plan for the years 2002-2005 which plan initially prioritized the creation of an ICT infrastructure linking all departments within it. In September, 2005, an Inter-Ministerial Taskforce on Integration of Population Register Systems (IPRS) was appointed to fast track the integration of the registration systems. In its February 2006 concept paper, the Taskforce recommended, among other things, the introduction of a unique national number – Personal Identity Number (PIN) for all individuals resident in the country, assigned at birth, to serve as the control number for all registration systems. 325. It further recommended the establishment of a National Population Register, containing information of all residents, to serve as a central reference for all population registration systems. Further, that a central database be established to facilitate operations of the National Population Register. Finally, that a nationwide ICT infrastructure backbone be developed to link government agencies for purpose of information sharing and verification. These recommendations formed the basis for the subsequent operationalization of IPRS. It was his averment that the IPRS http://www.kenyalaw.org - Page 47/174