Youth suffer as President Uhuru Kenyatta’s order on IDs is ignored

On February 13, President Uhuru Kenyatta ordered that Kenyans be issued with identification cards (IDs) wherever they are in the country.

“Hatutaki kusikia hiyo maneno eti mnatuma watu kwenye walizaliwa (We do not want to hear that people are denied IDs because they apply in areas other than their homes). You must register them in areas where they are living,” Uhuru said during Devolution Cabinet Secretary Mwangi Kiunjuri’s homecoming at Nanyuki Stadium in Laikipia County.

The presidential directive gave many people a reason to celebrate. One of them was Lilian Nasimiyu. The 23-year-old woman who was born in Bungoma County but works Nyeri County, was certain, following the directive, that her five-year search for an ID would come to an end.

For the umpteenth time, she went to the registration bureau but this time oozing with confidence.

To her surprise, the message was the same: “You need to go back to your home district,” she was told.

When she cited the President’s order a senior registration official told her: “What the President said was a political statement, which has no any legal implication. We are yet to receive any circular clearly stating that position.”

Agnes Wachira, Nasimiyu’s employer, insists that she applies for the document so that she can register her with the National Social Security Fund and National Hospital Insurance Fund.

“For the past two years, I have been telling her to go to the local registration office to apply for the ID but each time she comes back empty-handed. She keeps telling me that they advise her to travel to her home district to make the application,” Ms Wachira said.

She added: “I began to doubt Nasimiyu’s explanations and so I decided to accompany her to the registrar’s office and was shocked when she was turned away again by very rude officials,” Ms Wachira explained.

Wachira’s attempt to intervene for Nasimiyu after the presidential directive was also fruitless.

“We have provided all the documents they have requested. The local chief and sub county commissioner have signed her application documents acknowledging Nasimiyu as resident, but the registrar has insisted we travel to Bungoma again,” she explained outside the registration office.

tied hands

Nyeri County Registrar Lucy Mwaura explained that the law was still in effect despite the presidential directive.

“I am a government officer. My hands are tied by the laws that govern Kenya,” Ms Mwaura said.

“Since she (Nasimiyu) is not a local she would need to be vetted by a local committee of leaders who would then support her application to be registered in Nyeri and the minutes of their meeting would be attached to her application, and then sent to the headquarters,” she  said.

The vetting committee is comprised of local leaders and Nyumba Kumi representatives who would confirm they know the applicant and the applicant’s parents. Unfortunately, the committee sits once a month and their next meeting will be on March 16.

The committee would also require to physically see Nasimiyu’s parents who are currently living in Bungoma.

Ms Mwaura referred The Standard to Kenneth Nduati, the media relations officer at the National Registration Bureau, who said that the presidential directive was being enforced.

“As long as you are a permanent resident in that county, you are allowed to register from anywhere in the country,” Mr Nduati said. That, however, doesn’t seem to work in the case of Nasimiyu.

She will now have to wait to try her luck with vetting committee (and that will involve bringing her parents to Nyeri), or take the next bus to Bungoma to apply for the crucial document.

Nasimiyu is not alone. Hundreds of youth are unable to get IDs despite coming of age. They have been tossed from one office to the other to a point of giving up the search.

Mohammed Ali Ramadhan, 22, a resident of Nanyuki town is also unhappy. Since he attained the age of 18, he has applied for an ID on several occasions in vain.

Although Ramadhan was born and brought up in Majengo, Nanyuki, officials at the registration bureau have declined to register him.

“I applied for an ID and was subjected to  a lot of vetting. I was told to go from one chief to another. I was even interviewed by a panel that finally ruled I that I be given the document,” he said.

But since last year when his application was accepted, Ramadhan is yet to get his ID.

Phauzia Nduku, also a resident of Majengo, has also almost given up her search for an ID.

The 25-year-old says she applied for an ID at the Laikipia East registration bureau in Nanyuki and was referred to her county of birth, Kirinyaga.

“My mother passed away so many years ago and I do not know my father. I feel I am not Kenyan since without an ID card, I cannot access various important services,” said Nduku.

Nduku says she cannot get a job since employers insist that job applicants must have IDs.

borstal institution

Daniel Maina, 22, from Likii slum in Nanyuki, just like Nduku, has been unable to get the document. His parents died while he was in a borstal institution in Kakamega.

“When I was released I could not trace any documents. The area chief is my neighbour but even having been born and brought up in Likii he cannot assist me get an ID,” said Maina, a former street boy.

Zachary Kubasu and Duncan Ndegwa Hamisi said police have also been taking advantage of lack of IDs to harass innocent youth whom they brand as criminals.

“Let them know that we are not criminals and the more they push us to the corner, the more they harden us. We have spent nights in police stations for lack of IDs, which we apply for but they never give us,” said Kubasu.