Kenya’s Directorate of Criminal Investigations has launched a multi-biometric identification system that combines fingerprint and facial recognition for criminal-record searches and police clearance certificates. The government says the platform is intended to reduce certificate processing to 24 hours while phasing out manual fingerprint collection.
Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen unveiled the system at the DCI’s National Forensic Laboratory. It upgrades the agency’s Automated Palm and Fingerprint Identification System, or APFIS, into a broader platform capable of matching more than one biometric modality.
The DCI contracted IDEMIA Southern and Eastern Africa for the upgrade in 2024. Agency materials describe the new platform as a Multi-Biometric Identification System and say it is designed to support faster searches, larger record volumes and improved integration with digital application processes.
Police clearance applicants have traditionally submitted inked fingerprints for checking against criminal records. The new model moves collection to electronic live-scan devices, reducing the handling and transport of paper forms and allowing fingerprints to enter the matching workflow directly.
The DCI has planned live-scan coverage for 52 Huduma Centres, its headquarters and police facilities. Huduma Centres are government service locations where residents can access multiple public services, giving the biometric network a wider geographic footprint than a centralized clearance office.
Facial recognition adds a second way to search and compare identities, but the available launch information does not specify when every collection site will be converted or how individual cases will be divided between face and fingerprint checks. The 24-hour target is therefore a service objective rather than a guarantee for every application.
The project extends Kenya’s use of identity technology beyond travel infrastructure such as planned biometric systems at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport. It also gives IDEMIA another government deployment in the region as agencies modernize legacy fingerprint databases.
Kenya has also proposed linking surveillance cameras with national identity records for facial recognition. The clearance platform is a separate DCI system focused on forensic searches and certificate processing.
The agency has not disclosed a contract value in the current launch information. Its stated focus is the transition from paper capture to digital collection and faster certificate delivery.
Sources: Citizen Digital, Directorate of Criminal Investigations
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By the ID Tech Editorial Team
