<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><font size="2" class=""><a href="https://www.businessdailyafrica.com/economy/Biometric-IDs-listing-set-for-this-year-after-secret-tender/3946234-4694828-v50ngv/index.html" class="">https://www.businessdailyafrica.com/economy/Biometric-IDs-listing-set-for-this-year-after-secret-tender/3946234-4694828-v50ngv/index.html</a></font><div class=""><font size="2" class=""><br class=""></font></div><div class=""><font size="2" class="">Dear Listers, </font></div><div class=""><font size="2" class=""><br class=""></font></div><div class=""><font size="2" class="">Business Daily reports of a ‘secret tender’ to undertake a fresh ID registration based on biometrics. I am concerned for two reasons–</font></div><div class=""><font size="2" class="">(a) Transparency</font></div><div class=""><font size="2" class="">(b) Public participation. </font></div><div class=""><font size="2" class=""><br class=""></font></div><div class=""><font size="2" class="">There is no denying the place of technology and how far we could go if we adapted the most recent tech in governance. However, the very sensitive nature of this type of data places a bigger responsibility on GoK. First to develop a data protection framework but beyond that get the public buy in. To add, our current governance framework calls for transparency and public participation. There is no going around those two prerequisites. Have we not learnt anything from Communication Authority and DMS woes? </font></div></body></html>