Technology is evolving at breakneck speed, time and again outpacing the law’s ability to keep up. Nowhere is this more evident than in the domain of digital identification. As societies move away from traditional paper-based identity systems toward digital ID solutions, the way we prove who we are is undergoing a fundamental transformation. No longer is it enough to simply present a physical document – now, identity must be authenticated, verified, and secured in real time.
From mobile networks to sophisticated biometric scans, digital ID relies on forward-looking technologies to bridge the gap between individuals and institutions. Whether through fingerprint recognition, facial scans, or one-time passcodes, authentication has become a multi-layered process designed to guarantee that only the rightful owner of an ID can use it. While this shift offers undeniable benefits – enhanced security, efficiency, and accessibility – it also raises pressing questions. How do we balance convenience with privacy? Who controls the data? And what safeguards exist to prevent misuse?
As digital identity becomes central to governance, financial transactions, and everyday interactions, it is crucial to examine not just the technology itself but the broader implications for law, rights, and societal trust.
5 Key Takeaways
- Rapid digital ID adoption: Governments are rapidly adopting digital ID systems, integrating them into everyday life and making them essential for accessing public services like healthcare, social welfare, and education.
- Serious governance challenges: Digital ID systems raise serious governance challenges, as governments often implement them without ensuring transparency, public participation, and accountability.
- Marginalized communities threatened: Digital ID can reinforce social exclusion by creating systemic barriers to registration, which marginalized communities in countries like Kenya and Uganda face, putting them at risk of exclusion from essential services.
- Harmful technological errors: Technological errors in digital ID systems directly harm individuals, causing issues such as incorrect birth records, blocked ID cards, and denial of citizenship, which can strip people of their legal identity and rights.
- Critical role of CSOs: Advocacy groups and civil society play a critical role in exposing digital ID flaws, pushing governments to uphold legal protections and ensure digital governance aligns with democratic values.
Governance and Technology: The Digital ID Debate
As digital ID systems evolve, governments and organizations no longer confine them to specialized offices or secure databases. They increasingly integrate these systems into everyday devices -smartphones, websites, and digital platforms – making identification and authentication more seamless than ever. However, when governments take the lead in implementing these systems, digital ID quickly becomes a subject of intense debate. This is because digital identity is not merely a technological upgrade. It is a gateway to essential services.
Across the world, and particularly on the African continent, governments are making digital ID a mandatory prerequisite for accessing public services. From national health insurance and state examinations to driver’s licenses and social welfare, identity verification is becoming an unavoidable step in the delivery of essential programs. Countries like Kenya and Rwanda have built centralized digital platforms where citizens, and even non-citizens, must authenticate themselves before engaging with nearly any government agency. In some cases, governments tie crucial welfare programs, such as elder care or healthcare for vulnerable populations, to digital ID, making registration and authentication a prerequisite for receiving assistance.
Yet, while these systems promise efficiency and accessibility, they also introduce significant governance challenges. A growing concern is that governments are adopting technology without fully adhering to the principles of good governance – public participation, transparency, accountability, and equity. This shift, often referred to as governance by technology, creates a critical gap: algorithms and digital infrastructure increasingly shape decisions about identity, access, and control, rather than democratic oversight. As digital ID continues to expand, the question remains – how can we make certain that technology serves the people rather than the other way around?
Governance by Technology: Redefining Citizenship and Belonging
Obviously, digital ID systems are taking root across Africa. They are not just restructuring government services, they are reshaping fundamental questions of citizenship and belonging. While national constitutions and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) provide clear legal frameworks for these rights, digital ID is redefining how individuals join digital society. The shift from physical documentation to digital identity does not merely upgrade technology; it transforms how society recognizes, includes, and excludes individuals.
Kenya’s Huduma Namba project
Take, for instance, Kenya’s Huduma Namba project. Designed to expand the national ID system to include children and foreign nationals, the initiative was introduced through an amendment to the law on the registration of persons. However, the project faced fierce opposition, particularly from communities that have historically struggled to obtain citizenship documents. In a country where most citizens are documented, certain marginalized groups continue to face systemic barriers to registration. Rather than addressing these longstanding inequities, the Huduma Namba program prioritized digitizing existing records – effectively reinforcing exclusion rather than solving it. With government services moving online, those without digital ID risk being locked out entirely.
Uganda’s Ndaga Muntu project
A similar situation unfolded in Uganda with the Ndaga Muntu project, where ethnic communities not officially recognized by the government found themselves denied identity registration. Despite constitutional protections promising cultural rights, the government forced members of these groups to register under different, state-approved ethnic identities just to access basic services. This not only stripped them of their cultural identity but also exposed the deep flaws in digital ID systems that fail to account for historical and social complexities.
Yet, even for those who are registered, digital ID presents new challenges. In the digital age, individuals must not only possess an ID but also authenticate it in real time to access services. In Uganda, errors in the digital registration process meant that some citizens, particularly older individuals, had their birthdates wrongly recorded. As a result, they were deemed ineligible for old-age support, despite their rightful entitlement. Instead of the burden falling on the system to correct these errors, it fell on the very people who were already vulnerable – forcing them to traverse a bureaucratic maze just to reclaim their identity.
Consequences of Digital ID Failures
The consequences of digital ID failures can be devastating. In Kenya, authorities later flagged over 40,000 people who had received humanitarian aid as children in refugee camps as refugees, leading them to reject these individuals as Kenyan citizens when they turned 18. South Africa had more than 700,000 ID cards suddenly blocked due to suspicions of fraud, leaving individuals unable to prove their legal identity. In both cases, those affected only realized their citizenship was in question when they were denied access to essential government services.
As digital ID continues to expand, these cases serve as stern reminders that technology alone cannot determine identity, belonging, or rights. Without safeguards, transparency, and accountability, digital ID risks becoming yet another tool of exclusion – one that governs not just access to services, but the very right to exist within a nation.
A Fairer Digital ID Systems in Sight
A truly transparent and equitable digital ID system would empower individuals, not burden them. People should have the right to know what data the government holds about them and the government should provide a straightforward way for them to correct inaccuracies. For vulnerable populations, fairness demands even more. Government agencies should proactively reach out to individuals, ensuring they do not leave anyone behind simply because of their circumstances, rather than forcing them to navigate complex bureaucratic processes.
If the rule of law were fully upheld, no person would be denied access to essential services due to bureaucratic or technological failures. While many African countries lack specific legal frameworks for governing digital technologies, fundamental protections already exist. National constitutions guarantee the right to recognition, and Article 13 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) explicitly protects every citizen’s right to equal access to public services. The challenge, then, is not the absence of rights, it is the failure to implement them effectively in the digital age.
The controversies surrounding digital ID have not gone unnoticed. Many of the issues raised have only come to light through the relentless efforts of advocacy groups and litigation. Yet, despite these contestations, African governments remain committed to forging ahead with digital ID programs, viewing them as a cornerstone of their transition into fully digital states. As more public services move online, the responsibility falls on judiciaries, policymakers, and civil society to assure that digital governance aligns with democratic principles.
We are here to help governments, financial institutions, and businesses to effectively comply with growing regulatory requirements through technology.
