The High Court has declared the roll out of Huduma Namba, which the government spent more than Sh10 billion illegal for being in conflict with Data Protection Act.
Justice Jairus Ngaah ruled that the government should have conducted impact assessment before rolling out the Huduma Cards. The Judge further ordered the government to conduct the assessment before the rollout, to create safeguards to protect Kenyans’ data, as the cards have already been rolled out
Katiba Institute and law scholar Yash Pal Ghai sued the government arguing that it was wrong for the government to roll out the Huduma cards, before conducting a data protection impact assessment.
The lobby group and Prof Ghai argued that the assessment would identify the risks such as breaches to privacy, loss of data, while some Kenyans might be locked from the roll-out because they lack identity cards.
“Order of mandamus is hereby issued compelling the government to conduct a data protection impact assessment in accordance with section 31 of the data protection act before processing of data and rolling out the huduma cards,” Judge Ngaah ordered.
Katiba Institute argued that the government plans to roll-out Huduma cards before conducting a data protection impact assessment as required by section 31 of the Data Protection Act.