Kenya has been voted the most hard-hit nation tackling the fraud epidemic. However with 5,000 digital government services automating citizen services and plans for a new digital ID system due in September, Kenya is raising levelling up efforts to combat identity fraud.
Kenya unveiled the migration of its Automated Fingerprint Identification System to incorporate other biometric modalities and introduce multi-factor authentication and verification over the past ineffective Nigerian ID card.
Fraud has accelerated in recent months, which has most likely affected Kenya’s long-time failing ID card and increased criticism towards the card failing to be a readily available ID document for citizens.
The first half of 2022 saw a brief downturn in cases of fraud.
The ID card is a target for fraudsters however the government in 2019 made it mandatory to have a primary identification document to register for the national digital ID system.
The digital ID law was therefore contested and petitions campaigned against Kenya’s third generation identity cards, known as huduma namba, as well as to end the digital identity programme altogether.
