Kenya plans to connect the National Registration Bureau’s database with a new facial recognition surveillance system in six major cities, a move the government says will improve how police detect crime and carry out investigations.
Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen announced the initiative during a televised interview, saying the project will link identity records with facial recognition technology to help police identify suspects faster than they can today. Currently, investigators often scan CCTV footage manually and then share images of suspects with the public to generate leads.
Murkomen said the existing approach is slow and frequently ineffective because Kenya has no centralized system that can match surveillance footage with official identity records. He added that the country also lacks a facial recognition database that can compare camera-captured images with government-held records to confirm a person’s identity.
The technology will be integrated into an upgraded Integrated Command, Control and Communication Centre (IC3). Once the system is fully operational, police will be able to compare CCTV images with photographs stored in national identification records.
Murkomen said the system will build a larger dataset over time, enabling officers to verify identities in real time. He added that Nairobi will receive the technology first, with deployment planned within six months after procurement begins.
The government aims to finish procurement within two months and set spending at a maximum of KSh25 billion. As part of the project, authorities plan to install surveillance cameras in Nairobi, Mombasa, Kisumu, Nakuru, Eldoret, and Nyeri.
Murkomen said the government will maintain privacy protections and install cameras only in public spaces. He also stated that authorities will not extend the system to private areas such as homes or hotels.
The project signals a major expansion of Kenya’s use of biometric technology in policing. The Interior Ministry said the system will modernize criminal investigations by speeding up suspect identification through the integration of surveillance footage and official identity records.
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