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{
    "id": 196012,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/196012/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 65,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Mungatana",
    "speaker_title": "The Assistant Minister for Medical Services",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 185,
        "legal_name": "Danson Buya Mungatana",
        "slug": "danson-mungatana"
    },
    "content": " Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me the opportunity to contribute to this Motion. At the outset, I want to congratulate hon. Ethuro for bringing this Motion once again. I support it. First and foremost, it makes sense to cut costs in this Government. As the hon. Member was speaking, I remembered that I have my identity and my voters cards here. If you look at these documents, you will realise that the voter's card is basically an extraction of information from the identity card. They have only added an elector's number on the voter's card. The rest of the information on the voter's card is similar. The elector's name is my name. The identity number is the same one they took from the identity card. The constituency details are the same. It is the same thing. They just replicated it. Even as we smile or laugh about this, it is a very serious matter and it has cost us millions of shillings. The process of procurement alone, for the identity cards, is worth millions of shillings. The same thing happens with the elector's card. Why do we have to pay double? If there is one thing that the Minister needs to pambana with very quickly, it is this issue. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, this Motion also brings to bear the need for our country to move from where we are to new technological advancement. Hon. Rege has talked about electronic identity cards. What needs to appear on these identity cards needs to be linked to the national database. This will be the first step towards getting proper information in this country if the Minister can take up this Motion and start working on a proper national database. The national database needs to be used for purposes of keeping all the necessary information on every citizen, so that the new document will reflect the proper records. The national database should be linked to provide proper records even of the births of children in the rural areas. It should also provide records of deaths of children and adults in the rural areas. The national database should be upgraded all the time. I do not know what we will call it because it will contain the identity card and the elector's card. They will come up with a new name when they are thinking about it. This document needs to be linked to the national database where all our information will be stored. That database should not be made available to every person. We should be assured of our privacy, so that when the Government needs to deal with us on official matters, it can deal with us, but not everybody should be allowed to have access to that kind of data. It should only reflect something like where we live, our telephone numbers and our districts. The issue of giving one's tribe is very unfortunate. It should not be reflected because it takes us back to those days that we do not want to go back to. Another thing is that there is the question of the security of this new document that we propose to create. We have had problems with the Kenyan identity cards being used by criminals for illegal purposes. Again, as they create this new document, it is important that April 23, 2008 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 595 proper security mechanisms must be introduced to it. Finally, I want to talk about the procurement of this new document. We would pray that with the new administration in that Ministry, there will be honesty and openness in the procurement of the identity cards. We have had cases, and we have mentioned them in this House, about the procurement of identity cards. Questions have been raised in this House. We pray that this new document will be properly procured. The Minister should agree with us to cut down the cost, so that we do not have to go through these two processes. With those few remarks, I strongly support this Motion."
}