Government's wish to introduce new ID cards is understandable, but we can do better
The national identity card is the current 'mark' that the government system uses for its citizens, but it is an imperfect one. PHOTO | ANTHONY OMUYA | NATION MEDIA GROUP
What you need to know:
- The ID is the current "mark" that the government system uses for its citizens but it is an imperfect one.
- KRA PINs are easy to obtain, and their authenticity can also be verified by checking against records on the KRA site — something that’s not possible with ID’s.
- United States Social Security numbers do not change even if citizens move across state borders, change names, or get married.
Back when I was in high school, people would have mild doses of craziness as their final exams rolled around. There would be some cases of indiscipline that schools would tolerate from their last-year students, while some others would start going to church, which was now open almost 24 hours a day.
A few others would become fans of predicting the future, or Nostradamus and memorize, share or write witty predictions or Bible verses for empowerment and confidence building.
One of the then-common revelation verses was about the Mark of the Beast to mark humans at the end of time. Revelations 13:17 in the Bible reads "and that no man might buy or sell save that he had the mark (or name) of the beast and the number of his name".
What’s the link? Here in Kenya we have the identity card (ID) system, and the sequence of numbers on Kenyan ID cards has been the backbone of record keeping at many government departments, banks, and other institutions.
Without showing an ID you can’t enter many places, and once inside, you have to show the same ID and have it recorded or entered into a computer system to gain service. The same sequence of numbers on your ID is tied to many other systems and is entered as the primary search detail.
KRA PIN ‘VERIFIABLE’
The ID is the current "mark" that the government system uses for its citizens but it is an imperfect one. It is a random sequence of numbers that change when you get a new-generation ID.
Right now there’s more than one government plan to come up with another ID card system in the name of national security and this will likely have new ID numbers.
The same flaw applies to passports, which some Kenyans sometimes use to open bank accounts, but which then have to be changed every few years when they fill up or expire.
A better way to sort or index citizen data would be to use a stronger number that does not change every few years and is accessible to companies and individuals, both local and foreign. That number already exists, and it is the PIN number from the Kenya Revenue Authority.
KRA PINs are easy to obtain, and their authenticity can also be verified by checking against records on the KRA site — something that’s not possible with IDs.
SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER
PIN number data is also dynamic, while ID data is static. Imagine if M-Pesa and the other mobile transfer companies made the KRA PIN card an accepted form of ID to transact, and that it became mandatory after a test period?
You could visualize the data and patterns of cash movement in the country in addition to numerous other sequences.
There’s some move to make the PIN a primary record document, and KRA now penalizes some companies for not having PIN numbers of their corporate and individual clients.
A KRA PIN is like a Social Security number (SSN) in the USA — and that is a country that has no national ID systems but instead has almost 50 states, each issuing its own driver’s license — and the SSN essentially functions as the American national ID.
Most US documents do bear SSNs that are used to index everything from police searches to financial and university records to customer databases at clothing and video rental shops. SSNs do not change even if US citizens move across state borders, change names, or get married.
PICTURE ID AT AGE 15
In very rare cases, it is possible to change a SSN if one can prove he or she hs been a victim of identity theft or domestic violence.
Looking even further into the revelations of the future, the most advanced country in terms of ID and e-government is not the USA but tiny Estonia, which has a population of just 1.3 million people.
There, it is mandatory to get a picture ID at age 15 that has a chip that carries data that enables its citizens to sign documents, vote online, pay for parking or bus tickets and even vote on the Internet, something that 25 per cent of Estonians did in 2011. Estonians have managed to create one card that acts as a voting card, a bank card, a beba pay card, a tax card, and even as a passport.
So even as the government rolls out yet another new system, which will have the same citizen data, the existing PIN numbers, not new ID numbers, will be an ideal bridge to enable the systems to talk to each other, existing systems that store citizen data and to search and retrieve timely information.
Twitter: @bankelele
