Thousands of national identity cards have not been collected at Huduma Centres across Mt Kenya, with administrators asking applicants to come forward.
Over 25,000 applicants for national identity cards in the region have not collected their documents, even as leaders called upon the youth to get their documents in readiness to register as voters.
In Murang'a, more than 13,000 ID cards remain uncollected, 6,000 of them being from new applicants.
According to county registrar of persons officer Ms Juliet Mutitu, the rest are replacement of lost or damaged copies.
County's Youth, Sports and culture Executive Officer Mr Noah Gachucha said his department in collaboration with administrators is in the process of sensitizing the owners of the uncollected documents to pick them.
"We are going through difficulties rolling out empowerment programmes owing to many youths of consent age having no Identity cards, yet, the documents are lying idle at various registration centres," Mr Gachucha said.
He added that "besides getting locked out of empowerment programmes, we want them to register as voters as well as be in a position to pursue personal growth ventures like registering phone numbers and opening savings and credit accounts".
Mr Gachucha said "it is not right that more than 6,000 youths in Murang'a are unemployable and cannot register for governance services owing to lack of Identity cards".
The National Democratic Congress youth leader Ms Gladys Njoroge who hails from Murang'a County said key to failure to collect the documents is lack of opportunities and poverty.
"The status of the economy so far makes it useless to the minds of many youths to get an ID card. Create jobs and streamline skills and higher education opportunities to attract youthful enrollment and the idle IDs will be collected in a day," she said.
She added that "it is hard to convince a youth to spend Sh200 to go and collect an ID card just to keep it as a souvenir...give them a reason that is not entirely political to go and collect the documents".
She said "campaigns for ID registration and collection are currently about voter registration where the elections are in 2027... We have more than two years to collect them if need be".
While there are over 3,000 ID cards at the Nyeri Huduma centre, in Kirinyaga county, at least 10,000 identity cards are lying uncollected in government offices.
Assistant county commissioner Joseph Mureithi asked how the applicants expected to participate in elections and seek employment without the crucial documents.
He asked the applicants to visit Kerugoya Huduma Centre and the local registration of persons office and collect their IDS.
Speaking at Kamuiru Boys High School in Kirinyaga Central Constituency during the presentation of Sh60million National Government Constituency Development Fund (NG-CDF) bursaries by area MP Gachoki Gitari, the administrator stressed that the government wants all Kenyans who have attained the age of 18 years to acquire IDS.
In Laikipia County, a total of 2,313 national identity cards are lying uncollected at the two Huduma Centres, some which were delivered at these offices four years ago.
Majority of these uncollected documents belong to men (1,374) while the rest (939) were applied for by women at the Nanyuki and Makutano Huduma centres.
An official at the Nanyuki Registration of Persons office Mr Duncan Murage said these documents belong to individuals who had lost their IDs and applied for new ones but never went to collect them once they were processed.
There are also those who wished to have their details altered or corrected but failed to make a visit to collect them.
"We categorize them as "other applicants" since they are not seeking registration for the first time. They include those who lost their IDs and those who seek to have some details in their documents altered for various reasons," said Mr Murage.
He said one of the reasons why the owners have failed to collect them according to the official is that the applicants could have relocated and ended up making fresh applications in their home counties after being issued with the ID waiting notification slip which is legally acceptable while making some transactions.
"Those lying uncollected were applied when the Sh1,250 ID replacement fee had not been introduced, hence the reluctance to make a follow up," he said.
Additionally, Mr Murage disclosed that there are additional 1,510 documents across the six Sub-county headquarters for persons not previously registered.
"The new applicants might not be aware that waiting time after the application now takes a maximum of ten days to have an ID processed and delivered at the point of application. There is need to create awareness so that citizens can visit our centres two weeks after applying for the documents," he said.
Reported by Mwangi Muiruri, George Munene and Mwangi Ndirangu
