By CYRUS OMBATI
Police are investigating the source of hundreds of national identity cards (IDs) that were found dumped by the roadside in Nairobi.
In excess of 1,000 cards were found at Muthurwa’s Kamkunji round-about on Wednesday morning and officials are yet to establish who dumped them there and why.
Central OCPD Patrick Oduma said they were informed of the find by pedestrians.
“We are yet to know who dumped them there but it is a shocking threat to our security,” he said.
Some of the documents seemed to be new and all had unique stickers on them.
The dumping came only days after 17 senior immigration officers were sacked for allegedly issuing Kenyan identification documents to illegal immigrants.
The government is planning to carry out an audit of all national IDs and passports issued within the last two years.
Interior Cabinet Secretary Joseph ole Lenku said IDs not collected within three months will be destroyed to prevent them from falling into the hands of terrorists and illegal immigrants.
Loopholes
He said 350,000 card have not been collected from various centres, adding that the officials sacked due to irregularities in issuance of passports and IDs will be prosecuted.
This followed the findings of a security audit ordered after the Westgate Mall terrorist attack on September 21 which revealed loopholes that terrorists exploited to plan and execute the attack.
The audit revealed that the waiting cards that are issued to applicants before an ID card is processed were being misused.
Some criminals have been using the documents to commit crimes.
At least 67 people were killed and over 200 others injured when terrorists belonging to the Al-Shabaab militia raided Wesgate Mall in Nairobi last month.
