Over 462,000 IDs uncollected amid voter registration

Voter registration IEBC.[File, Standard]

More than 462,000 new Identity Cards (IDs) remain uncollected in national registration bureau offices across the country.

The IDs are piling in registration bureaus amidst an ongoing nationwide voter registration conducted by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC).

Immigration and Citizen Services Principal Secretary Belio Kipsang said on Thursday that the state department was concerned with the rising number of Kenyans who were not collecting their IDs after issuance.

Dr Kipsang said it was worrying that the thousands of citizens whose IDs are gathering dust in offices were not accessing crucial government services, including Social Health Authority (SHA) registration and access.

He directed the movement of the uncollected IDs from national registration bureaus to Chiefs' offices, where the local administrators will trace holders of the documents to their villages and homes.

“We have 462,000 IDs which have not been collected countrywide, and we are ensuring that Chiefs and their assistants collect IDs which have not been collected,” the PS said during a Chiefs’ sensitisation meeting in Eldoret, Uasin Gishu County.

He said that at least 15,000 ID cards, more than 8,000 of which belong to youthful first-time applicants, have not been collected in Uasin Gishu County alone.

“We are aligning these IDs all the way to the sub-locations so that the assistant chiefs can use the village elders to ensure that these documents are collected,” Kipsang said.

The PS said that Chiefs found to be aiding the unprocedural registration of foreign nationals along the Kenyan border will be held responsible for the illegal issuance of the country’s crucial identification documents.

He warned chiefs and national registration officials not to misuse the cessation of vetting in border counties to register foreigners for Kenyan IDs.

“As much as we ceased vetting, issuance of IDs is essentially still a multi-agency process. Our other multi-agency teams still follow up to ensure that the application processes are within the laws that guide the issuance of identity documents,” he added.

Kipsang said an enhanced national ID registration exercise established that some locals in border counties were getting the identification for the first time at 80 years of age.