The proposed Huduma Namba is a big disappointment for gays and sex workers who have been viciously fighting against biometric registration. For about three years local and foreign activists successfully fought off plans by the Ministry of Health to use biometrics in registering gays and sex workers in Kenya.

But now an amendment to the Registration of Persons Act legalizes the use of biometrics in the registration of all Kenyans. It also allows the use of Global Positioning System (GPS) in the registration process thus enabling the tracking of an individual’s location via satellite.

The Ministry of Health and activists have been locked in a vicious dispute over a proposal to register sex workers and gays using biometrics. The ministry had planned and even acquired expensive equipment in 2016 for a national census of gays, sex workers and related groups known as key populations.

But following opposition from the Kenya Key Populations Consortium, the US last year prevailed upon the ministry to drop the use of biometrics and threatened to withhold funding. Kenya Key Populations Consortium represents over 90 groups of gays, prostitutes, drug injectors and activists in Kenya.

The consortium argued that such data could be misused to track down their members by law enforcers since their activities are illegal in Kenya. It had also been argued that the requirement was illegal and discriminatory. Read more via Standard Media