DIGITAL REGISTRATION

DIGITAL REGISTRATION TO START IN NOVEMBER

File: BVR in use. The government will start registering citizens afresh by November.

The government of Kenya will start registering its citizens digitally by November this year. This exercise will take off despite the heated debate between the opposition and the government which started some months ago when the Deputy President, William Ruto, announced that the Jubilee Government was to register Kenyans afresh in order to address the security challenges which hit the country and cases of fake identification documents.

The government said the registration will start with government employees in order to test whether it can work. The machines to be used will not be procured since the Biometric Voter Registration equipments, which were purchased from France in the year 2012 to be used in last year's general elections, will be used to register citizens of Kenya.

The opposition feared that, that was a strategy which Jubilee Government wanted to use in order to rig votes come 2017 elections.

File: manual identity cards: soon will be useless.

The government realized that there were several intruders in the country who have acquired identification documents illegally. The current issuance of identity cards are only based majorly on the current place of residence, the parents of whoever wants the identity card and one is allowed to apply for an identity card after producing the birth certificate which literally contains all the information about the birth of an individual. This method, according to the government, has not worked well and it has resorted to embark on digital registration. This means that the current manual identity cards will be rendered useless as soon as the digital registration is complete.

The registration, however, will cost the taxpayers approximately 8 billion shillings if it is carried out for a period of six months. The government said it will compress the process so that it can be done within three months and that will cost only 5 billion to be complete. The cost seems to be high, but at the end of the day some Kenyans will get jobs and everyone above 18 years of age will also be registered.

Other countries like Rwanda adopted digital registration some years back and it has acted as role model to Kenya. Several digital processes have been adopted in Rwanda. For example, registration of businesses online started long ago in Rwanda while in Kenya the government launched it about three weeks ago. Such digital migrations are paramount in growing the economy in the developing countries.

Polling station. BVR machines failed in 2013 elections.

The government of Kenya made a tremendous move in acquiring Biometric Voter Registration which worked marvelously during registration of voters which was carried out between 18^th November and 18^th December 2012. The problem arose only during March 4^th, 2013 elections when BVR machines were reported to have failed to transmit the votes to central tallying centre which was staged at Bomas of Kenya. The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) decided to use manual voters list to carry out election after the failure of BVR machines to work.

The current move by the government to have voters registered digitally is, therefore, crucial in that the government will have an easy time detecting criminals and the foreigners who may enter the country illegally.