Kenya Plans to Link CCTV Cameras With National ID Records for Facial Recognition

Kenya’s Interior Ministry plans to connect surveillance cameras with the country’s national identity records so that police can match faces captured on camera against official ID photos, Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen has said. The aim, he said in a television interview, is to let security agencies quickly identify people suspected of crimes by merging camera footage with the government’s identity database.

The plan responds to what Murkomen described as a current gap in capability. “We do not have a database with facial recognition technology that already has the facial recognition for Kenyans, where you merge the faces you get from the cameras to the database to establish the credentials of an individual,” he said, noting that police now rely on manually reviewing footage and publishing images of suspects. Under the plan, the system would draw on photographs already held in official identity records.

The capability would be built into an upgraded Integrated Command, Control and Communication Centre, alongside a wider rollout of surveillance cameras planned for cities including Nairobi, Mombasa, Kisumu, Nakuru, Eldoret, and Nyeri. Murkomen said the government is in the final stages of procurement, hoping to conclude within two months at a cost of up to 25 billion Kenyan shillings, with Nairobi among the first sites and deployment expected three to six months after procurement.

“Once we establish this technology, we will slowly build in the data of various people based on information in the ID,” Murkomen said, adding that police would then be able to match faces against citizens’ official photographs. On privacy, he said the cameras would be installed only in public places, not in private areas such as hotels or homes.

Plans to tie biometric surveillance to national identity records are likely to draw scrutiny in Kenya, where legal experts have previously warned that the country’s digital ID plans must prioritize human rights.

Sources: Kenyans.co.ke

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By the ID Tech Editorial Team