BIOMETRIC TECHNOLOGY
Biometric Technology Is
Becoming The Security
Feature Of Choice In
Kenya
By Eugene Wanekeya
S
o, elections came and went. Oh!
Pardon me, came twice for some, and
went. The term KIEMS kit featuring
widely during the most stretched out
electoral period in Kenya’s young history.
The bone of contention being, is it
humanly possible to guarantee 100 per
cent data security? And can biometric
sy stems be manipulated?
Well! The jury is still out on this. I will
not get into this debate to avoid the
misconception that my opinion denotes
my political affiliation. So what does all
this hullabaloo mean for marketers of
such technologies?
To start us off, what is biometric
technology? Biometrics is the technical
term for body measurements and
calculations. Biometric verification is any
means by which a person can be uniquely
identified by evaluating one or more
distinguishing biological traits. These
unique identifiers may include facial
features, fingerprints, hand geometry,
earlobe geometry, retina and iris patterns,
voice waves, DNA and signatures.
Generally speaking, there is no biometric
verification method that is favored over
the other in terms of ultimate secure
authentication therefore as a marketer, it
is important to fully understand the pros
and cons of each of these technologies.
Each of the different methods of
biometric identification have a couple of
advantages. Some are less invasive, some
can be done without the knowledge of
the subject, some are quicker and some
are very difficult to fake whereas some are
more affordable than others.
Politics aside, let’s look at the KIEMS
Biometrics is the technical term for body
measurements and calculations. Biometric ver-
ification is any means by which a person can
be uniquely identified by evaluating one or
more distinguishing biological traits. These
unique identifiers may include facial features,
fingerprints, hand geometry, earlobe geometry,
retina and iris patterns, voice waves, DNA and
signatures.
36 MAL21/17 ISSUE
The most notable
application of biome-
trics which I have fo-
und to be the most
interesting is in schools.
Gone are the days wh-
en teachers took roll
calls with a pen and
register, today schools
have begun adopting
biometric technology.
kit for instance. The system was meant
to electronically identify voters through
its automated poll book known as the
Electronic Voter Identification (EVID)
system. This system primarily identified
voters biometrically through fingerprints
as it sought to curb impersonation during
the voting exercise making sure only those
that had been registered are allowed to
cast their votes.
The only challenge with fingerprint readers
of course depending on their quality is
that they at times fail to read based on
clarity of the prints being scanned but as
for manipulation, it takes some serious
effort to manipulate such systems.
In Kenya, biometric technology is quickly
becoming the security feature of choice.