Registration of persons can be improved

By Mohamed Guleid

According to the law everyone should be registered as Kenyan or foreigner. It is therefore not a matter of choice for one to seek identification documents. For purposes of getting employment or renting a house or even opening a bank account, everyone within the borders of Kenya is required to have recognised identification papers. The amendments to CAP 107 of the laws of Kenya, has included passports, alien identity cards or military IDs as identification documents for official purposes.

Personal identification and the law that governs this legislation can be traced back to the colonial period when adult male were required to wear a copper plated metal on their neck. This metal was then infamously referred to us ‘kipande’ a term still used today to refer to the current identification card every adult Kenyan is required to carry. The legislation referred to then as Native Registration Ordinance was passed in 1915 to control the movement of natives. In independent Kenya, the Registration of Persons Act CAP 107 was amended in 1978 to require both male and female adults to register and carry an identity card at all times.

Every Kenyan, therefore, must get this crucial document. Failure to acquire an ID is an offence. However, many Kenyans suffer in the process of acquiring identity documents. The period it takes to get an ID is nearly a year and sometimes one might not get it. The youth from border areas and specially Northern Kenya are the worst affected. The application involves appearing before committees that have to identify the person and ascertain his or her identity. This is ridiculous because even though someone originally comes from an area, it does not mean one is forced to live there. In fact, the methods used to identify people are so primitive it could disadvantage someone if there is no positive identification. A committee might simply fail to recognise someone simply because through migration one might be domiciled elsewhere in Kenya.

In more developed countries issuance of identity cards is straight forward and requires little effort. Citizens only require to appear at the identification section of the local municipality, and acquire an identity document. This is made possible due to an efficient basic registration system by the local authorities. The use of modern technology has made it possible to manage this process without depending on human knowledge. Methods used in Northern Kenya counties of identifying young people are not only cumbersome but also create room for corruption. Since the terrorist attack on Westgate shopping mall it has become clear that we need to drastically improve ways of identifying people and issuing identity documents.

A database that interlinks different counties using computers could make issuance of identity documents easy and efficient. This could on the short-term appear expensive but on the long-term it would improve our security and help cut down the amount of time it takes to acquire an identity card or passport.

The writer is Deputy Governor, Isiolo