Cabinet Secretary for Interior and National Administration Kipchumba Murkomen on Thursday presided over the launch of a new Multi-Biometric Identification System that government officials say will fundamentally change how Kenyans access police clearance certificates and how security agencies share information. The event, held at a Huduma Centre in Nairobi, brought together top leadership from the police, prosecution, prisons and digital services, and was described as a major step in modernizing the country’s criminal justice system to match the speed and complexity of current security challenges.
Murkomen said the rollout reflects the administration’s broader commitment to reform institutions that deal directly with citizens. “We are modernising our security agencies to improve service delivery and meet the evolving needs of Kenyans,” he told the gathering. He noted that for years, processes such as obtaining a certificate of good conduct were slow, manual and frustrating, forcing people to wait up to two weeks for a document that is often needed urgently for jobs, visas and business licenses. Under the new system, he explained, that wait has been cut to 24 hours.
The Multi-Biometric Identification System has been deployed across all 52 Huduma Centres nationwide. It captures and verifies multiple biometric identifiers at once, allowing for faster and more accurate matching against national databases. The technology, developed with support from international partners, is intended to reduce errors, eliminate impersonation and ensure that a person’s identity can be confirmed in real time wherever they apply. With this addition, the government says the total number of services now digitized under the current administration has risen to 24,000, a figure Murkomen cited as evidence that digital transformation is moving from policy to practical impact in everyday services.
Beyond convenience for citizens, the Interior CS emphasized the security benefits. Linking the biometric platform to other key institutions, he said, will enable instant identity verification during investigations, improve real-time intelligence sharing between agencies, and strengthen Kenya’s capacity to fight crime. “This will significantly boost our war on crime and ensure stronger cross-border security cooperation,” he said, pointing to how quickly shared biometric data can help track suspects, verify travelers and support regional policing efforts. In a region where movement across borders is frequent, having interoperable systems is seen as critical for preventing transnational crime and terrorism.
The launch was followed by another milestone for forensic work in the country. Murkomen witnessed the handover of the ANSI National Accreditation Board Certificate to the Forensic Evidence Management Unit within the Directorate of Criminal Investigations. The accreditation means that Kenya’s central forensic laboratory now meets internationally recognized standards for evidence handling, testing and reporting. Officials said this positions the country as a regional leader in forensic science and aligns local practice with global benchmarks used in courts around the world.
The significance of the ANAB accreditation, according to those present, is both technical and legal. It assures that evidence collected from crime scenes, stored, analyzed and presented in court will meet strict quality controls. That should reduce cases dismissed on technicalities and increase public confidence in prosecutions. It also opens the door for Kenyan forensic experts to collaborate more easily with counterparts abroad and to have their findings accepted in international investigations.
The event drew senior officials from across the justice and security sector. Inspector General of Police Douglas Kanja was present, alongside Deputy Inspector General in charge of Administration Police Service Gilbert Masengeli, DCI Director Amin Mohamed, and Commissioner General of Prisons Patrick Aranduh. From the legal and oversight side attended Director of Public Prosecutions Renson Ingonga and National Police Service Commission Chair Dr. Yuda Komora. The digital government side was represented by eCitizen Director General Ambassador Isaac Ochieng and National Police Service Accounting Officer Bernice Lemedeket. Representatives from ANAB, ICITAP and IDEMIA, the technical partners involved in the biometric rollout and forensic upgrade, also attended.
In his remarks, Murkomen linked the two developments, saying that modern policing requires both fast identification of individuals and credible scientific evidence to support cases. The biometric system addresses the first part by speeding up background checks and enabling frontline officers to verify identities on the spot. The forensic accreditation addresses the second by ensuring that when a case goes to court, the evidence will stand up to scrutiny. Together, he argued, they close gaps that criminals have exploited for years.
The Interior Ministry has in recent months been pushing a wider reform agenda that includes recruitment, training, equipment and digitization. Murkomen said the goal is not just to buy new technology but to change how services are delivered so that a Kenyan in Lodwar or Mombasa has the same experience as one in Nairobi. By putting the biometric system in Huduma Centres, the government is leveraging infrastructure that already reaches every county, reducing the need for people to travel to DCI headquarters for clearance.
The 24-hour turnaround for police clearance is expected to have immediate economic effects. Many young people applying for jobs abroad, teachers seeking TSC numbers, and professionals needing compliance documents have cited delays as a major bottleneck. With the process now digitized, applicants can submit fingerprints at a Huduma Centre, have them matched against the national database, and receive the certificate the next day. Officials said the system also creates an audit trail, making it harder for fraudsters to obtain clearances under false identities.
On the forensic side, the ANAB certificate was described as the culmination of years of work to upgrade laboratories, train staff and document procedures. The FEMU will now operate under standards that cover everything from chain of custody to equipment calibration. Partners from ICITAP and IDEMIA said they will continue supporting capacity building to ensure the gains are sustained.
Murkomen concluded by urging agencies to fully integrate their systems and to prioritize data protection and privacy. He said technology must serve Kenyans while respecting their rights, and that oversight mechanisms will be strengthened to prevent misuse. He also called on counties and other government departments to link their databases to the national platform where appropriate, so that the benefits of faster verification extend beyond security to health, education and social services.
Leaving the event, senior officers said the next phase will focus on training, public awareness and connecting the biometric system to regional databases to support cross-border operations. For citizens, the message was simpler: services that once took weeks will now take hours, and the institutions charged with keeping the country safe are being equipped to do so with greater speed, accuracy and accountability.
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