Even before dust settles on the controversies surrounding the new Huduma Namba, vocal city Miguna Miuna has come up to reveal some more shocking details about the Namba.
Miguna in his own view poses some critical questions on how the whole process will be carried out and who are the new beneficiaries of the process.
Lawyer Miguna Miguna writes;
“Who is it that has snagged the tender for printing new Huduma cards? Who will supply the database software? Who will ‘eat’ the computer hardware tender? Who will grab the multi-year, multi-billion-shilling system maintenance contract? Who will get paid? Is it Muhoho Kenyatta or Mama Ngina Kenyatta?
He continues to ask; What can the Huduma number do that the average identity card number cannot? And if there is something wrong with ID card numbers – such as duplication thanks to election rigging moves – then why aren’t we fixing the issues with national ID cards?
Let’s get some basics out of the way. The Huduma Namba initiative has nothing to do with delivering services to you. That much is obvious even to the most besotted government supporter.
There is no number on earth that can help a government deliver services better if that government has not been doing so or wants to do so.
With that out of the way, we can now speculate on the real motives behind this government-pushed initiative. If it is not designed to help deliver services and we know it is not because this government has never been about service delivery – then what is it for?
The Latins have an excellent little phrase that one can employ in such cases. It is the deceptively simple ‘cui bono?’ which translates to ‘to whom is it a benefit?’
Wananchi have no need for Huduma numbers, because they are drowning in state-issued numbers. The average adult Kenyan has an identity card with a supposedly unique number.
There isn’t much you can do in Kenya without your identity card- can’t open a bank account, can’t buy property, can’t even marry without one. But that’s just one number: before one receives an identity card, one needs a birth certificate, with its own unique number.
With all these state-issued numbers, it is a little disingenuous for the government to look to saddle us with yet another document, yet another unique number that we suddenly need if we want to access government services.
So, maybe the President should be upfront. He should look us squarely in the eye and tell us who it is that has snagged the tender for printing new Huduma cards.
These are the people and companies who will benefit from this, and it is they that are driving this strange initiative. While at it, the President could also tell us why he reckons we need a sixth unique number to access government services. What for?
Knowing how much government officials steal each time they try to roll out big projects, I can bet there is a big scam on this Huduna number.
We saw it with SGR, Galana kulalu irrigation scheme, Afya House scam, Dams, NYS, Laptop, KPLC, Sh1B Oil Spill Scandal…. The Huduma Number project will cost Sh6 billion, just before a Sh18 billion national census. All this being hurried at a time when Kenyans are dying of hunger.”