Roll-out of Maisha Namba already manifestly flawed

It is roughly two weeks to the launch of Maisha Namba. As they say, the
train has left the station, or so it seems.

But wait a minute, the proposed identification systems’ weakest link
appears to be located at where it ought to matter most – the people, the
very sovereign, I must add. That the government has ambushed ordinary
Kenyans with a launch date suggests that it has not learned its lessons
from *Nubian Human Rights case*, *Katiba Institute cases* and the *Free
Kenya Initiative case*. If it did make attempts to learn any lessons then I
am certain it got it upside down. I will not, therefore, be surprised if
the implementation faces serious legal hurdles and eventually suffers a
fate similar to that of its infamous predecessor.

What plays out shows how the citizens’ interests may be so easily
threatened and or slaughtered at the altar of competing economic and
political interests conveniently couched in western constructs of so-called
development. More so since at such times, as is the case with Maisha Namba,
the State that owes the duty to protect is complicit, decides to look the
other way or ‘feigns evasive lunacy’ in clearest of cases.

Regards,
NO (DPIA legal specialist)