The other side of voter registration

I registered as a voter at my local registration centre yesterday evening just before 5.00 pm the official closing time. The BVR experience was painless and flawless and took less than 3 minutes and I now have an acknowledgment slip to confirm this.

However, part of the process in addition to the photograph and the finger print taking of all 10 digits (with apologies to those with less), involves a manual process where you are required to sign an  indemnity form as well as provide your mobile phone number and email address, the first time in my recollection that this is happening. I assume this is so that they may contact you in future should any correction need to be made to their registers!

I am just wondering that given that 18 million Kenyans above the age of 18 years old expect to be registered within the one month registration period, I will not be surprised if the data being collected by the IEBC will also be used for other purposes.

Think about it for a minute!!

Here is an agency, for all intents and purposes an appendage of the government, charged with the biometric registration of Kenyan voters and whose target is to collect crucial data and information about 18 million Kenyan adults and rebuild their voters registers literally from scratch. The IEBC will have access within its database to the unique finger prints of you and I, our photograph, our specimen signature, our mobile phone number and our email address (for those fortunate to have this) of all who register. This is a watershed election since it is the first one under the new constitutional dispensation and it is expected that the registration turnout will be at an all-time high given the stakes involved.

Now which responsible government would not use such a database to boost its crime fighting capabilities, its ability to rollout a parallel system of facial identification and signature recognition software, its ability to eavesdrop on the mobile phone conversations of suspects and those that may be up to no good as well as to monitor and identify anyone who causes trouble in the period leading up to the elections and thereafter? Which agency intent on extending its reach and improving on its efficiencies would not go out of its way to lay its hands on such a massive and potentially useful data base?

By the same token, which rogue government would not use such information to harass and intimidate its populace and subject them to undue scrutiny and surveillance now that they have all their crucial details. I am not saying that this is what is going to happen, but I will not be surprised if this is the secondary motive why the BVR system was rolled out!

If as a secondary motive the information collected under the guise of biometric voter registration is able to prevent terrorists from infiltrating our borders, can assist in capturing and identifying criminals, weed out the bad elements from society, trace those that are in the country illegally and help to identify and trace criminal elements amongst us then it is acceptable to me. If however, the secondary purpose is to assist in spying on me and infringing on my constitutional rights then I take great exception to this motive.

Be that as it may however, the whole process is well grounded in our constitution and the IEBC Act and we have little choice at present but to accept it as is!!