The high court has set aside orders stopping any further roll out of the new digital identity cards popularly known as Maisha Namba.
Justice Lawrence Mugambi said it was not in public interest to maintain the interim orders he had issued last month.
The Judge had on July 25, issued orders stopping any further roll out of the digital card.
One of his reasons was that it would be difficult to remedy damage caused if the court eventually finds the process unconstitutional.
What followed was an urgent application filed by CS Interior seeking to set aside those orders.
Imigration PS Julius Bitok told the court that there were over 1,215,095 backlog identity cards for Kenyans that were pending processing as at July 31, 2024.
He told the Judge a number of Kenyans would lose job opportunities without having the said identity cards.
"They may not access other crucial documents like driving licences, registration of companies and businesses and so on," he said.
These are matters that Bitok urged the court to reflect on.
He explained to the court that the situation continues to escalate and the backlog is increasing at the rate of 10,000 per day.
Based on this, Justice Mugambi said he is no longer persuaded that it is not in public interest to maintain the temporary orders he had issued in July.
"There was thus clear demonstration that suspension of registration of Kenyans has very direct immediate adverse consequences on very large population of people and the Interior Ministry is able to track and account for such members every day," he said.
