Kenya has launched a campaign to encourage pastoralist communities who regularly cross into neighbouring countries in search of pasture and water to register for national identity cards.
This week in Nairobi, Prof Belio Kipsang, the Principal Secretary for Immigration and Citizen Services, told lawmakers that Kenya intends to include these communities in its database to enable proper security monitoring and accountability.
This announcement also subtly acknowledges the difficulty of issuing identification documents to communities that straddle border points between Kenya and its neighbours. Previously, the porous nature of the borders had forced the government to impose additional vetting procedures to ensure that all those who received documents were Kenyan citizens. However, this approach was criticised for violating basic human rights. Now clerks must follow them into the pasture fields.
“Our live capture equipment is geo-mapped. IDs can only be issued within our geographical borders. We shall continue to engage all leaders on the need for Kenyans to have IDs,” Prof Kipsang said on Tuesday, appearing before the National Assembly’s Committee on Regional Integration chaired by MP Irene Mayaka.
“We have Kenyans in Wajir and Narok counties who are getting ID cards for the first time in their 60s and 80s.”
In Kenya today, there are three sets of IDs issued to people resident in the country: national IDs for citizens, alien IDs (also known as foreigner registration certificates) for foreigners residing in Kenya, and refugee certificates for people registered as seeking refuge in Kenya. All three allow holders to register bank accounts, phone numbers and tax identifiers.
But as the country heads towards the general election, officials now face the double challenge of registering Kenyans for IDs and actually handing them the documents.
Prof Kipsang said mobile clerks have been touring remote areas targeting nomads and other communities for registration, with a target of enrolling up to 3 million more Kenyans in the database. Yet they have little guarantee that they can locate these same individuals when the cards are ready.
Since January, some 1.5 million Kenyans received their IDs for the very first time, according to the State Department for Immigration and Citizen Services.
Last year, the government issued 1.9 million identity cards between January and December.
“We have 600 mobile live capture devices that are helping us with mobile registration. With 56 vehicles and 600 live capture devices, we can only be more efficient,” stated the PS.
Some 1.1 million students in schools who have attained the age of 18 are set to be issued with the documents before they leave school, he added.
Last year, President William Ruto formally nullified the extra vetting for Kenyans living in border counties.
Border counties such as Wajir, Mandera, Garissa, Turkana, Trans-Nzoia, Bungoma and Kajiado had often employed double checks to ascertain citizenship, but this move also discouraged genuine applicants who complained of lengthy procedures.
Still, some 520,000 IDs already processed remain uncollected by applicants. Prof Kipsang said the government is using village elders to locate their owners.
Legislators have generally criticised the government's decision to remove some of the checks on citizenship confirmation before issuing IDs. Some argue that without these checks, foreigners could obtain IDs.
“There are allegations that you are issuing IDs to non-Kenyans. Clarify the process. How do you identify those Kenyans? We need clarity,” said Khwisero MP Christopher Aseka.
Marakwet West MP Timothy Toroitich enquired about the measures put in place to ensure that nomadic and pastoralist communities who have crossed into neighbouring countries are issued with IDs.
“There are Kenyans who live along borders. They cross for grazing and pasture. How have you identified those Kenyans? They are not foreigners. They have crossed borders for economic activities and need to be issued with IDs,” he said.
The PS refuted claims that foreigners are being issued with Kenyan national IDs, reiterating: “We only issue our IDs to Kenyan citizens.”
Prof Kipsang said that the new technology for capturing applicants' biometrics prevents individuals from providing false details. He explained that, to prevent fraud, applicants' details are cross-checked against the details of 34 million individuals whose details have already been captured.
