Digital welfare automation in Kenya
Since 2010, under the constitution, the Kenya the government released what is referred to as Innovation in public service delivery expressed in the Kenya Vision 2030: Towards a Globally Competitive and Prosperous Kenya. The Kenya Vision 2030 document underscores science, technology and innovation as a means to foster global competitiveness for wealth creation, national prosperity and a high quality of life for its people. Specifically, the document states that “the government will create and implement an STI policy framework to support Vision 2030.
This Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) Policy is geared towards the realization of the Country’s long-term development goal of Vision 2030. The objective of the policy being to mainstream science, technology and innovation in all the sectors of the economy through carefully targeted investments[1].
According to the Global Innovation Index 2022 Report, the statistical confidence interval for the ranking of Kenya in the GII 2022 is between ranks 85 and 97. Kenya performs better in innovation outputs than innovation inputs in 2022. This year Kenya ranks 103rd in innovation inputs, lower than both 2021 and 2020. As for innovation outputs, Kenya ranks 79th[2]. There were 17.86 million internet users in Kenya in January 2023. Kenya’s internet penetration rate stood at 32.7 percent of the total population at the start of 2023.Further, internet users in Kenya increased by 1.3 million (+8.0 percent) between 2022 and 2023[3].
Even though, Kenya’s production systems have not fully integrated innovation to enhance competitiveness. As a result, key sectors such as manufacturing have experienced slow growth making it difficult for them to compete effectively. Kenya’s industrial structure displays insufficient linkages and synergies between the various sectors of the economy such as education, manufacturing, trade and ICT.
Kenya is one of the world leaders in driving financial inclusion through the use of digital solutions such as M-PESA, Mula, PesaLink and Pesapal. The adoption of such innovations is facilitating transactions and spurring trade for corporations, small and medium enterprises (SME’s) and individuals. This in turn translates to improved and efficient business environments, increased accessibility, connectedness and better standards of living.
Digitization automation in Kenya has enabled Fintechs to develop innovative business models with payments solutions or platforms sitting in commercial banks. Products like M-Akiba for micro investors in government securities, M-Kopa for solar energy supply, Once Acre Fund in agriculture, and many other products, are making a difference outside the financial sector. Once digitization has taken root in an economy, it allows for sustainable business models to be developed and launched on the digital platform to support other sectors of the economy[4].
Further, digital automation is now driving fiscal policy designs, revenue administration, and public finance management. It is reducing leakages in revenue administration, but more importantly, the digital tax payment platform is an important innovation for efficiency and transparency[5]. Indeed, the digital platforms have revolutionized the way payments to and from the government are made. In addition, government services are being digitized across ministries and government agencies. For instance, tax payments to all government agencies, ministries, and county governments are made through the central bank’s “G-Pay” platform. Integration of iTax with the Central Bank of Kenya and Integrated Financial Management Information System is in the process of ensuring that the system captures tax payments to all levels of government.
The Integrated Financial Management Information System is already integrated with the central bank’s G-Pay system, which remits the money directly from the respective ministries, state agencies, and county government accounts[6]. This also includes, Kenya Revenue Authority M-Service that enables a single view of the taxpayer’s records, improved reconciliations, matched payment and bank reports online, allowed real-time monitoring of revenue collection, introduced system checks and audit trails, and minimized interaction between taxpayers and tax officers, reducing breaches in integrity in the organization.
In the education sector Kenya has experienced rapid growth due to the expansion of basic education and the on-going implementation of the Competence-based Curriculum (CBC). This has provided a great opportunity for the mainstreaming of science and technology and integration of learning based on discovery and competence development. Implementation of the digital literacy programme provided laptops to Kenyan primary school-going children, trained teachers and developed digital curriculum, thereby integrating the use of digital technologies into the curriculum. By September 2019, 1,148,160 devices had been installed in 21,232 schools, or 97.7% of the target[7].
In the transport and road safety sector in Kenya digital automation is driving ease in service delivery. Currently, Kenyans pay for and obtain the provisional license online through the e-Citizen portal, book the test online at their convenience and on passing the test, leave the test centre with a driving license. Renewal of driving licenses previously meant queuing at National Bank of Kenya or at the Post Office. Today, it takes less than five minutes to renew a driver’s license. The dispatch of new drivers’ licenses was bedevilled by numerous challenges such as lost documents or inability to reach owners due to the limited postal infrastructure in place. To date, there has been a major increase in the accuracy of data held by the National Transport and Security Authority (NTSA) as well as a marked reduction in administrative as well as collection costs, among other benefits[8].
Kenya’s healthcare system has recently been devolved, with funding now managed primarily by the 47 counties that make up the country[9]. The central government, through the Ministry of Health, provides support for the counties and, in the area of digital health, has established an eHealth Unit, to guide overall policy, set standards. The central government, through the Ministry of Health, provides support for the counties and, in the area of digital health, has established an eHealth Unit, to guide overall policy, set standards [10] and support national-level systems such as the Master Facilities List (MFL) and the District Health Information Software (DHIS2) (for collating national statistics on health indicators[11]. The eHealth Unit, in conjunction with the Kenya Health Informatics Association (KeHIA), is also leading the implementation of new national projects such as creating a national-level patient identifier, establishing a certification framework for (Health Information Systems) HIS, and working to establish the use of the Digital Health Atlas for ongoing monitoring of HIS implementations in Kenya[12].
Kenya has leveraged digital technology in the administration of an all-inclusive database of all registered persons and provision of related services.
The National Registration Bureau collects biographic and biometric data through its application process and operates the system wide Automated Fingerprint Identification System, which checks against possible duplicate or multiple registrations[13].
In March 2015, the Integrated Population Registration System was launched to provide an integrated identity service that enables authorized public and private entities to conduct a validation check on identity documents issued by government agencies. It shows that the Integrated Population Registration System responds to around 1.5 million electronically generated identity-related queries per day[14].
However, the Kenyan government is on the process of replacing the current “second generation” national ID cards with a new ID system including a machine-readable card with a microchip that will contain more comprehensive details of the holder. This new card, is supposed to make it easier to transmit transaction and other data in real time. This includes implementing a six- character Unique Personal Identifier that will be linked to an electronic database with the educational records of all individuals from primary school up to university level.
One prominent example national digital ID (“Huduma Namba”) as a single source of information about all Kenyans and resident foreigners. According to a 2019 Act, the government can collect GPS coordinates of an individual’s place of residence, fingerprints, hand geometry, earlobe geometry, retina and iris patterns, voice waves and DNA in digital form.
In July 2019, the government published a Huduma Namba bill, which states that every resident has a ‘mandatory obligation’ to present their Huduma Namba to access social protection services, benefit from a government housing scheme, enrol in public education, or access healthcare services[15].
However, Kenya’s current identification system has several limitations[16].
First, the system’s components have traditionally functioned in storage tower, without a single authority mandated to provide identification services across the population. This has resulted in considerable duplication of registration facilities as well as disjointed data from the various agencies.
Second, there is limited civil registration coverage with estimated rates of birth and death registration low, at 63 percent and 45 percent respectively[17]. This limited coverage cannot provide a solid foundation for the national registration system.
Third, the system has over-relied on manual processes and only recently started to transition to digital databases and processes[18]. The heavy reliance on manual processes, as well as weak birth and death registration and an ID number without check digits, increases the potential for error and possible ID fraud.
Fourth, the biometric data collected in the process of registration is not readily accessible to help authenticate individuals against their ID credentials. As a result, several programs have developed, or are developing, independent biometric systems for this purpose, raising the prospect of costly incompatible systems[19].
Fifth, Kenya has a weak legal framework around data privacy. The 2012 Data Protection Bill is still under consideration[20]. It is important that Kenya address these issues as it looks towards a robust, inclusive and privacy-supporting e-ID system able to provide identification services for an increasingly digitized society
Digital ID
