The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is continuing its global push to support government-backed digital ID programs — this time setting its sights on Kenya, where it will advise the government on that country’s “Maisha Namba” digital ID initiative currently under development, Reclaim the Net reports.
According to the Kenyan Daily Post, Gates’ role in assisting the Kenyan government in its development and rollout of Maisha Namba was announced after a recent series of “closed-door meetings” with Kenyan President William Ruto.
“The billionaire, who is known to champion GMO [genetically modified organism] foods, has met Ruto in a series of meetings since he came to power with most of the engagements shrouded in secrecy,” the Kenyan Daily Post wrote.
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The identification number attached to Maisha Namba “will also be used to register for government services, including education, health insurance, tax and social security.”
But some experts said they believe the Maisha Namba program has other, unannounced, aims. Dr. Wahome Ngare, chairman of the Kenya Catholic Doctors Association, told The Defender that Maisha Namba will operate as a vaccination tracking program.
“Maisha Namba — Kiswahili for ‘life number’ — is a biometric vaccination system for newborns that will replace birth certificates and help track children from birth to 5 years of age,” Ngare said. “It will be used to monitor and ensure all children receive their vaccines.”
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Ngare was referring to amendments to the existing International Health Regulations, currently under negotiation by WHO members alongside a proposed “pandemic treaty.”
The ID2020 Alliance previously promoted the development of digital ID and vaccine passports. Microsoft is a founding member of the ID2020 Alliance, as are Gavi, the Gates Foundation, the World Bank, Accenture and the Rockefeller Foundation.
“If all goes according to plan, Bill Gates will not only inject billions of Africans with his mRNA vaccines,” Ngare said. “He has created a digital ID system for governments around the world to ensure nobody misses their vaccines and that those who refuse vaccination can be restricted from traveling or from accessing government services.”
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Other experts also expressed concerns similar to those of Ngare. California-based privacy attorney Greg Glaser told The Defender, “Vaccine passports were a test run for global biometric ID,” adding:
“Biometric ID is to future dystopian society as batteries are to your TV’s remote control. Without the batteries, the remote control does nothing. Without biometric ID, dystopian technology fails: social credit scores, central bank digital currencies [CBDCs], smart devices in the Internet of Things.
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Similarly, Irene Polansky, a citizen who routinely participates in the National Call for Safe Technology hosted by Wired Broadband Inc. and Virginians for Safe Technology, told The Defender that COVID-19 was “a beta (compliance) test for what’s to come,” and to be wary of the touted benefits of new technologies such as digital ID.
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Digital ID for newborns part of ‘vast opportunities’ Gates sees in Africa
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According to Business Daily Africa, such assistance to the Kenyan government is part of what the Gates Foundation sees as “vast opportunities that can be unlocked through the existence of a digital identity in Kenya.”
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But the Gates Foundation is not the only global actor involved in the rollout of Maisha Namba. According to Kenya’s Capital News, the Kenyan government and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) signed a memorandum of understanding in August to support the fledgling digital ID program.
According to Reclaim the Net, “The plan envisages every newborn being assigned a Maisha Namba, which stays with them throughout their life.” Nyandarua County Deputy Commissioner Rukia Chitechi said, “The system shall be run through schools by ensuring every child born is assigned a maisha namba.”
Target 16.9 of the U.N.’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) calls for the provision of a digital legal identity for all, including newborns, by 2030.
According to Glaser, “The UN’s SDG Target 16.9 confirms that governments will be issuing everyone biometric ID by the year 2030, including babies … That means the UN is partnering with corporations and local governments to issue you and your children a biometric ID by 2030, whether you want the IDs or not.”
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Hancock said she was concerned about how a “long-term, persistent identifier” could “be used to track people and create a surveillance state or be compromised over time by a bad actor looking to leak information tied to these unique identifiers.”
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Concerns digital ID will lead to ‘permanent structure for state-level surveillance’
According to Biometric Update, “As the government seeks to win the trust and confidence of the population with regard to the Maisha Card, it has also clarified that its issuance will not be compulsory,” but will instead be accepted as proof of legal ID alongside existing identification documents.
Yet, a separate Biometric Update report states, “A two-to-three-year transition is planned, with legacy national IDs being phased out.”
Hancock said she prefers “ephemeral IDs for transactions and the ability to discard them or change them when they get compromised.” She is “also concerned about mandates around digital ID and it possibly leading to a permanent structure for state-level surveillance.”
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The Kenyan government claims the implementation of Maisha Namba is also intended to bring the country into compliance with international standards on global travel as determined by the International Civil Aviation Organization and other agencies.
Maisha Namba is funded with a budget of 1 billion Kenyan shillings (approximately $6.8 million), Biometric Update reports. The program was initially set to launch on Oct. 2, according to Business Daily Africa, but its rollout was postponed on Sept. 29.
According to Reclaim the Net, Kenyan officials “stress that the new system is aimed at addressing a host of issues such as the authentication of citizens, protection of primary identification documents, improved governance of social programs and operations, and simplification of access to services such as healthcare, education, taxation, and social security,” but public concerns may have contributed to the postponed launch.
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Glaser also criticized public-private partnerships. “As I researched biometric ID, I learned that governments are not at the top of the food chain. It’s actually private companies at the top — such as Microsoft, Oracle, Accenture — because they create and own the technology and they manage the data at the top.
Some Kenyans ‘very worried and suspicious’ of Gates’ endeavors in Kenya
Kenyan officials have sought to reassure the public that their personal information would be safe on the new digital platform.
Kenyan National Registration Bureau Registrar for the Kipipiri region, Joel Muchunu, said the Maisha Namba program will incorporate advanced security features, including cryptographic technology for data security, Kenya News Agency reported.
Irungu Houghton, executive director of Amnesty International, “applauded” the Maisha Namba program and the Kenyan government’s digital transformation efforts, according to Biometric Update, but “raised concerns about the safety of data that will be collected for the Maisha Namba scheme” and said it is important Kenyans are “comfortable they understand and are aware of the opportunities of this digital platform.”
Such reassurances have not convinced all Kenyans, however. According to Reclaim the Net, “There is an evident wave of skepticism,” with activists from certain regions “expressing concerns about inadequate infrastructure, unreliable network access, and privacy and civil liberties concerns.”
Some activists argued that the Maisha Namba is indistinguishable from a previous digital ID effort attempted by the Kenyan government, the Huduma Namba, according to Kenyan outlet The Star. That program was declared unconstitutional by Kenya’s High Court in October 2021, for conflicting with the country’s Data Protection Act.
Ngare said Huduma Namba “failed because [the government] intended to include DNA.”
Other activist groups, led by the Kenyan Human Rights Commission, are “calling for a stronger legislative basis” and “warn of the possibility of discrimination and the erosion of privacy,” warning that public engagement has been “lacking,” as have “procedural and legal safeguards,” Biometric Update reported.
Other activists “accused the government of backtracking on its promise to do away with vetting for persons seeking identification cards” and claimed “rogue government officials were using the vetting exercise to demand bribes,” according to The Star.
Kenyan officials claimed the country “is lagging behind” in digital implementation, “putting Kenya at risk of non-compliance with international enforcement agencies’ standards.”
Ngare said the Kenyan public at large isn’t highly familiar with Gates, but those who are familiar with him “are very worried and suspicious.” He said there isn’t extensive opposition to Maisha Namba “because at face value, it sounds like a good idea.”
“Most people don’t know the dark side of Bill Gates and his link to the depopulation agenda,” he said. “To the beneficiaries of the NGOs [non-governmental organizations] his foundation supports and some beneficiaries of his philanthropy, he is admired. To those who know the deeper undertones of the eugenics agenda, he is loathed.”
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Ngare said that Gates’ involvement with Maisha Namba is just one of his many interests in Africa, having previously been involved with “The clandestine administration of fertility regulating Tetatus vaccines to Kenyan women in 2014-2015, facilitated by Gavi and the WHO,” which he says “is still fresh in our minds.”
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The Gates Foundation is also “spearheading the funding to fight HIV, tuberculosis and malaria” in Africa, Ngare said, and is “injecting more funds ‘to advance access to mRNA research and vaccine manufacturing technology that will support low- and middle-income countries’ … capacity to develop high-quality, lifesaving vaccines at scale.”
“He is heavily invested in vaccine development, production and distribution through Gavi … and makes the vaccines ‘available’ to ‘low-income countries’ at affordable or subsidized prices,” Ngare added. “The U.S. and European governments fund the vaccine development that enriches the developers and sponsors such as Gates.”
“Expanding the mRNA technology to tuberculosis, malaria and HIV would afford Gates an opportunity to develop vaccines specifically targeted at Africans,” Ngare said.
Kenyan author Nanjala Nyabola, author of “Digital Democracy, Analogue Politics: How the Internet Era is Transforming Politics in Kenya,” said “Digital identity systems will only make governments more efficient at what they are already doing,” according to The Financial Times, adding that digital IDs could be used as a tool to suppress or discriminate against certain citizens.
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Via https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/gates-foundation-digital-id-newborns-kenya-surveillance/
Hopefully they have the same healthy disrespect for government, Trace, that we have here in New Zealand.
That sounds like a real nightmare, Skeptical. As much as possible I keep away from doctors and hospitals. I expect there will be a big increase in home births in New Zealand if they try to do that with newborns here. We have a very strong common law movement here already with people declining to register new infants or apply for drivers license.