@Murchr, I am just a simple Kenyan who has never even desired to live in another country or continent. But don't use your speculation to divert from the main issue(s).

The main issue in this context is: the origin of the SSN and intention for it differs greatly from what we have here. Or rather if the aim of GoK is to track taxation among citizens then we can now know why coercion and deception have been used to goad people to register.

For a country whose economy is held by the informal sector, and given the characteristics of this sector, I wonder how valid and reliable the information provided can be.

Okay, so the huduma number is an example of an SSN with different motivations. What are these motivations and what are some of the benefits? I will try to be as open minded as possible as you educate me on this matter.

I will also appreciate if you make me understand why other Kenyans have been coerced into a beneficial process without offering them this education that you are to provide to me.

Well designed systems can be represented using UML diagrams and one diagram that can help us understand this number is a use case diagram that can be translated into common language. I think that can be helpful in helping slow learners like me to see how getting this number is of advantage.

One use case is for lost ID replacement. How does the use case diagram for a pre- huduma number case differ from a post huduma number case, in the context of a huduma center?

System assumptions are that ID details match with birth registration and that educational and professional details are true without verification.

Taxation and taxation based details still leave much to be desired, even if there was concerted effort to formalize all businesses.

I'm struggling to see how NIIMS will be useful for government leave alone for the common citizens.

But resisting may be tough. Tycho may just be crushed by a white elephant, while conceding leaves him vulnerable and at a disadvantage.

What to do?

I once accompanied a friend searching for his missing younger brother. From one police station to the next, hospitals, city morgue.

After three days, a friendly cop called a colleague on phone who remembered they had collected a body (victim of hit-and-run) along jogoo road. No documents found on the body. With the new info we were back to the city morgue. A horrifying experience but a positive ID was done.

Last month, the traffic boss in muranga sent out an appeal because nobody had stepped forward to claim the body of a woman who had died in an accident three months prior.

Chances are, the family has reported a missing person in a different police station.

I also hear 8 bodies have so far been retrieved from the Nairobi river during the on-going clean up.

If I were in the huduma team, this would be my main selling point. Helping identify bodies in such cases. I am sure Kenyans wouldn't mind providing DNA for such benign objectives.

But jubilee doesn't think along the lines of how to help Kenyans. It comes down to how much they can steal from us.

ION, three years ago, the president signed the coroner's bill into law. Every county was supposed to have a coroner's office to investigate every case of un-natural death. This would include deaths in the hands of the police.
The above cases would have landed in the hands of a medical examiner in the coroner's office who would make life easier for distressed families. I imagine a DNA profile of every unidentified body. Matched to the families of those looking for their missing loved ones.

In case you are wondering, we haven't funded the coroner's office because we don't have money. The little we had went to Huduma registration.

All this talk is about death!! Nizike ningali hai.

My hypothesis is that citizens registered for Huduma for the simple reason they always want a record that they existed in the world. GoK did not have to force people to register but that urge to leave an official mark or record that you existed in some govt records was sufficient motivation. Same reason why we like to be counted during census. In the UK you can trace the family tree using the govt records.

Those resisting are the ones who want the right to be forgotten.

This is exercise seems to be a clean up of the id system. The same identification has been done to police, civil servants by the government.

Matiangi has finally published a bill that will make huduma number replace the ID as the primary identification document.
It's actually a criminal offence not to have one.

It's still early days since it has to go through public participation before the mandatory readings in parliament.

With the hand-shake, the bill will no doubt sail through.

Who wants to weigh in on the bigger picture (census, future elections).

I am in several whatsapp and telegram groups full of politicians and political activists. The theories I am reading there are too wild I can't share here.

Do not listen to the media as they are only interested in getting headlines and creating a show.


Huduma number will not replace the ID.

Everyone born in Kenya or wants to a resident of KE will need one.

Let me try to explain by following a child named Joe born in 1/1/2020

After birth Joe will be issued with a birth certificate & a Huduma profile is created for him to include birth cert records, NHIF, number.

If for any reason Joe dies at birth he'll get a death certificate and records updated on huduma profile.

Now if Joe survives to reach 6 His huduma profile gets updated to include a NEMIS number.

Once he reaches age 18, his huduma profile gets updated to include an ID/Drivers License


Assuming he gets employment, his profile is updated to indicate that he is now a tax payer and if he's saving for retirement, his NSSF profile is added.

Banks and mobile phone companies will also require this profile to open accounts and issue simcards

If he chooses to marry his records will be updated to indicate his wife's names and huduma details if she's Kenyan. If he marries a foreigner, the foreigner becomes eligible to acquire a Huduma profile.

Once he gets children, his this gets updated too, and their profiles are built etc.

If he so wishes to travel, his huduma profile will be used to get a passport.