Software developer Moses Victor Orwa Onyango has taken the government to court, claiming that the Maisha Namba identification system—introduced to replace the failed Ksh10 billion Huduma Namba project—violates his intellectual property rights.
Orwa alleges that he shared the concept with top government officials, including President William Ruto when he was Deputy President in 2021, and is now seeking Ksh391 billion in compensation.
In a lawsuit filed at the High Court in Nairobi, Orwa has sued several government agencies, including the Attorney General, the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS), the Ministry of Interior and Coordination of National Government, the Social Health Authority (SHA), the Ministry of ICT and Digital Economy, the Ministry of Education, and the Director General of the Kenya Citizens and Foreign Nationals Management Service.
A Vision for Digital Identification
Orwa says he developed Kenya Cyberspace_Portal in 2021—a digital identification system featuring a Unique Personal Identifier (UPI), a centralized virtual portal, and a GR code—before securing its copyright.
“The said work is an original work of the plaintiff,” court documents filed by Moni Wekesa and Company Advocates read in part.
He explains that the software was designed to assign each Kenyan a lifelong digital identity, tracking individuals from birth to death. The UPI would be terminated upon the issuance of a death certificate, eliminating the need for costly manual census exercises while ensuring data accuracy.
Orwa further argues that his system could help the government synchronize national IDs with geographical and postal codes, with all records stored in a secure, centralized digital portal. The UPI, he adds, could streamline crucial government services, including birth registration, school enrollment, issuance of national IDs, KRA PINs, health insurance registration, pension applications, and death certification.
Orwa’s Efforts to Engage the Government
Believing his innovation could transform Kenya’s identification system, Orwa says he reached out to government officials as early as September 8, 2021, when he emailed the KNBS Director General to pitch the idea. He later contacted then-Makueni County Senator Mutula Kilonzo Jr. (now the governor) on September 15 and October 11, 2021, seeking his help in presenting the proposal to the relevant authorities.
Orwa states that he shared his innovation documents with Gloria Wawira, a legal officer in Parliament, who was introduced to him by Tirimba Machogu, a legal and policy advisor to the Cabinet Secretary for Education at the time.
On November 5, 2021, then-ICT Cabinet Secretary Joe Mucheru and Senator Mutula Kilonzo Jr. advised him to present the idea to the International Telecommunications Union (ITU). Following their recommendation, he reached out to ITU on November 30, 2021, and continued discussions through follow-up communication in December 2021.
Orwa Accuses Government of Copyright Infringement
Orwa claims that Maisha Namba is nearly identical to his copyrighted innovation and accuses the government of implementing his concept without his permission or obtaining a license.
He argues that Maisha Namba’s Unique Personal Identifier (UPI) system works exactly as he had proposed—identifying individuals upon registration and integrating their personal data across multiple government services.
According to Orwa, the government has now adopted his idea for key identification processes, including birth certificates, education enrollment numbers, and health insurance registration—all core features of his original system.
The case is set to be heard in court, where Orwa seeks justice and compensation for what he claims is a massive intellectual property theft by the Kenyan government.
