Digitalization, Legibility and Intergroup Inequality in Kenya

• In Event: Inclusion and Control: Identity Documentation in the Global South

Abstract

In recent years, many developing countries have begun to introduce digital or biometric identity cards (eIDs), in an attempt to improve citizen-state legibility (Scott 1999, Lee and Zhang 2017). In the best case, expanding and deepening legibility can help states govern more efficiently and fairly, and expand citizen access to public services. But eID initiatives also represent a significant expansion of state surveillance and raise important questions about citizen privacy and data protection. This may be particularly concerning for groups with a history of mistrust in or conflict with the state. If opposition-leaning or marginalized groups are less likely to take up eIDs, these initiatives could ultimately have the effect of exacerbating, rather than reducing, inequality in access to public goods and services.
We use the example of the legally and publicly contested rollout of an eID system in Kenya – the Huduma Namba card program – as an entry point to explore the perceived costs and benefits of increasing citizen legibility to the state and implications for intergroup inequality. In a conjoint experiment with 3,000 respondents drawn from regions across Kenya (to be fielded in March 2022), we examine how potential policies governing the eID program, including those on data security, integration with voting systems, and information about program benefits affect support for the program, intended eID uptake, and willingness to engage in various forms of political participation in the event that eIDs become mandatory. Focusing on heterogeneous treatment effects among pro-government, pro-opposition, and historically marginalized groups, we examine the degree to which different groups are willing to "trade off" privacy for potentially better access to public goods and services.

Authors

• Lisa Garbe

• Nina McMurry, WZB Berlin Social Science Center

• Alexandra Scacco, WZB Berlin Social Science Center

• Kelly Zhang, Massachusetts Institute of Technology