The government is set to roll out a mass National Identity
(IDs) registration drive, targeting over one million Kenyans who have attained
the mandatory age, in less than a fortnight.
Addressing Journalists after his working tour of the
National Registration Bureau offices at NSSF Building, Interior and National
Administration Cabinet Secretary (CS) Kipchumba Murkomen affirmed the Kenya
Kwanza administration's commitment to ensure no Kenyan is left behind in access
to service delivery.
The CS also noted that over 400,000 National Identification
Cards (IDs) lie uncollected, with duplicates accounting for over 270,000.
The CS said policy interventions by the ministry to ensure
citizens have better access to identification services have yielded results
with the increase in applications for the IDs, especially from marginalised
communities.
“We are working very hard to ensure Kenyans who are not
registered, and those doing replacements, are going to happen in record time.
Starting from the other week, we are going to roll out the mobile registration
program in pastoralist areas,” disclosed the CS.
Murkomen said the exercise will be targeting the Northern,
Eastern and some parts of the Coast regions, to ensure that those who have been
left out for many years are now going to get their IDs.
He recounted that two significant reforms have been done at
NRB.
Among them was President William Ruto’s proclamation of the
unnecessary additional vetting for Kenyans in border counties, which has
benefited many.
The second, he said, is the ministry’s policy interventions
to ensure citizens have better access to identification services which include
removal of extra vetting for applicants in border counties, free issuance of
IDs for Not Previously Registered Persons (NPR), and scrapping of verification
fees for birth certificates.
He said the impact of these policy directions has increased
efficiency in service delivery and made the identification services more
accessible to mwananchi.
He commended the NRB for the work done in the last three
years, especially on the modernisation of the process and the numbers covered
at the Jukwaa la Usalama, county tours.
He also sought to allay fears following the president’s
directive, saying there are security measures put in place to ensure that the
system is foolproof and no person gets the ID in an unprocedural manner.
“The security checks put in place are to ensure no one in
Kenya can get an ID if they do not deserve one, including cases where some
Kenyans want to have an extra ID to change their age, sometimes they want an ID
yet they are registered as refugees unprocedurally,” said Murkomen.
“As a result of the application of the latest technology,
Kenyans can get their IDs in a matter of minutes, and delivery to the various
registration centers happens within three to seven days.”
He stressed that the live capture machines are extremely
important to reach Kenyans from all parts of the country.
He noted that some of the benefits of having the ID include
the Social Health Insurance (SHA) enrolment, Social Protection for the elderly,
seeking jobs overseas, mobile transactions and exercising political rights to
vote.
Acknowledging the
impact of the just concluded Jukwaa la Usalama, grassroots security
engagements, which also assessed service delivery, the CS noted that he made
promises to expedite service delivery.
One of the key takeaways was that the Department of
Immigration and Citizen Services to sustain the efforts for mobile registration
to ensure that no Kenyan is disenfranchised.
He announced that the ministry is in the process of
procuring over 300 additional live capture machines in the next three months,
in a process targeting all 1450 wards.
