Ruto, Raila allies clash over new Huduma Namba listing

A showdown is looming between Handshake partners ODM leader Raila Odinga and Deputy President William Ruto over the roll out of the Huduma Namba.

Jubilee MPs allied to Dr Ruto on Saturday claimed there is an elaborate plan to use Huduma namba registration process to siphon Sh7 billion through a German company. They also vowed to call for a boycott of the second phase.

The 10 MPs also claimed that a European company would use the data collected from Kenyans to rig the referendum and 2022 elections.

The MPs, who held a press conference at Serena Hotel in Nairobi, roped in the National Intelligence Service (NIS) as being part of the wider plot in the Huduma Namba fiasco.

The allegations come just a day after the government denied claims by allies of the Dr Ruto of an existing plot to rig the next General Election using Huduma Namba.

But Orange party told off DP allies over claims saying they have sensed defeat and are looking for what to blame for the failure.

“The DP himself registered for the Huduma Namba in broad daylight smiling chin to chin. He marketed it as a good thing. When did it suddenly become bad? Posed ODM secretary-general Edwin Sifuna.

Causing chaos

“The defeat coming their way in 2022 will be as a result of Kenyans rejection of their brand of politics and nothing else. Having seen their prospects dwindle by the day, they have begun laying a basis for rejecting the outcome of the 2022 Election and causing chaos and must be condemned in the strongest words possible,” he said.

But yesterday Ruto-allied Jubilee MPs upped the stakes in the Huduma Namba debate by claiming that there is a rush to pay Sh7 billion to the foreign-owned company through secret and hidden procurement.

“Now that the Ministry of Interior has told us all Companies involved are 100 per cent Kenyan — can they publish their CR12 shareholding and make disclosure on the ownership of this shadowy company? The President directed last year that details of winning companies will always be published. Publish the names of the Kenyan companies involved, their role and how much they are being paid,” said Dagoretti South MP John Kiarie.

 The MP said two individuals associated with the firm recently met with NIS technical team in Nairobi and that their flight costs were paid for by the State.

“What is the role of Dr Mativo of NIS in the implementation of Huduma Namba? Specifically, what are his duties as the Huduma project director? To demonstrate the seriousness of the project, roads were cleared for the economic saboteurs who had been flown in to complete the fraud and elite bodyguards allocated to guard them for their Five-day stay in the country. Why is the Huduma project, being moved from Ministry of Interior to NIS? Yet we have new data laws in Kenya that places all data on the shoulders of a data commissioner, under the Ministry of ICT?” posed Mr Kiarie.

Second phase

The MPS demanded publication of the joint agreement signed between Kenya and the company as well as opening up of the Secret Perso Centre Site to all MPs. Kikuyu MP Kimani Ichung’wa asked Kenyans not to register in the second phase of Huduma Namba.

In a statement on Friday, the government asked the public “to be wary of misinformation, disinformation and conspiracy theories propagated about Huduma Namba”.

The government statement indicated that the database logistics and the software for NIIMS are 100 per cent Kenyan government-funded, designed, developed, and solely managed by Kenyans adding no single component of the implementation process is handled by foreigners.

Interior PS Karanja Kibicho recently said the government would roll out another round of Huduma Namba registration in December and sought to reassure the public that their data is safe. “Everybody will have an opportunity, through mass registration session two or walking to the registrar of persons in future, if they miss out because this will be a continuous process,” he said.

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