A person's Huduma Namba will not be accessible once the owner dies, the government has said.

It is part of measures put in place to ensure the information provided by Kenyans remain safe.

“When you die, your Huduma Namba will die,” Nairobi county commissioner Wilson Njenga said.

He spoke during a public forum on the draft Data Protection and Huduma Namba laws in Nairobi Wednesday.

“All the data you have provided is safe. We have a strong team that will ensure it remains safe,” Assistant county commissioner Amos Mutuku said.

Wananchi protested against the Huduma Namba bill saying that the state has failed to outline mechanisms that it will use to protect personal data.

They said the French company - IDEMIA Securities Limited- in charge Huduma Namba registration could not be trusted with personal information.

“You realise that IDEMIA Securities Limited, formerly OT Morpho, was banned from doing business in Kenya for at least 10 years after it violated sections of the law,” Mathare resident Noah Andibwa said.

Participants said that the government was bulldozing the process without considering issues raised by Kenyans.

They said that the government has failed to assure them of the integrity of the people in charge of registration and the storage of data.

The government has failed to involve local experts who can provide lasting solutions, speakers said.

The public also said that there was no benchmarking done by the government to ensure the process has tangle guidelines in implementation.

“Unlike other projects, the government started by implementing. We expected the pilot project, civic awareness and public participation before the implementation,” Andibwa said.

Some speakers protested against hefty fines in the draft laws.

The bill talks of fines up to 5 million if you don’t have the Huduma number, give false information or do something else. How do you expect a six-year-old to always carry Huduma Namba,” Suhail Omar said.

The Star/ Imende Benjamin