Despite being one of the entities to commit to the ’50-in-5′ campaign, to consolidate digital public infrastructure in 50 countries by 2028, public concerns are being raised about the support of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for Kenya’s digital identity rollout, which was stalled by a court ruling giving into public feeling this month.
The foundation’s work on digital identity, cybersecurity is promoted as helping to close the poverty gap by providing a form of legal identification for people who lack acceptable means. The foundation developed a Modular Open Source identity Platform which lends under-funded governments the essential building blocks to build their own modernised national identity systems, however, aside from being prone to publicity, the foundation draws criticism in relation to their digital identity projects, for failing citizens’ right to privacy.
The Kenyan president, William Ruto, is said to have had several private meetings with the former UK prime minister to discuss continuing the rollout of Maisha Namba – despite calls to completely abolish the 30-year-old state NI system. Kenya promises to enhance the Maisha Namba system by ‘digitalising registration services’ and services for ‘identifying and authenticating Kenyan citizens’ using MOSIP’s infrastructure. Despite failing to comply with international standards, Maisha Namba seems here to stay with very little change to lifelong identity numbers.
