Interior CS Fred Matiang'i has once again defied court orders, this time in regards to the much-publicised Huduma Namba registration.
Speaking during the official launch of the exercise in Machakos County where he had accompanied President Uhuru Kenyatta, the no-nonsense CS said the government will close the registration on May 18, 2019.
Matiang'i noted that the registration will significantly reduce the number of documents that a person residing in Kenya is currently required to have in order to access government services.
"We will end this exercise exactly on May 18, forty-five days from today," said Matiang'i.
The CS further noted that Kenya has "joined the very few serious countries in the world" that have a biometric register of citizens, adding that India just finished issuing the unique personal identification number to its over 1.5 billion citizens.
He, at the same time, vowed to update the Head of the State on the progress of the registration exercise until the forty-five days elapse.
"My promise to the President is that this process will be executed with administrative precision and efficiency. I shall be giving the President a daily update of the number of persons whose data has been captured starting today until we complete the exercise on May 18, 2019. It is my conviction that we shall achieve the target by the set deadline," tweeted Matiang'i.
This comes after the High Court on Monday barred the government from forcing Kenyans to take part in the exercise by making it mandatory.