President William Ruto’s decision to abolish extra vetting for national ID applicants in northern and coastal counties has vested enormous powers in local chiefs.
However, abuse or errors in the exercise of the new authority may see many lose their jobs as others land in jail, if recent cases are anything to go by.
In the new arrangement, chiefs and their assistants will be responsible for signing Form 136A, the document used to register for national identification (ID) card and both fresh and repeat applications.
Before Dr Ruto’s order on February 5, there existed a vetting committee composed of an assistant county commissioner who acted as the chairman.
Other members in this committee included registrar of persons, an officer from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI), and National Intelligence Service (NIS), another from military Department of Investigations and at least five clan elders.
Already, suspected missteps in the exercise to the powers vested in chief has seen one chief facing trial in Mandera.
Mr Yusuf Maalim Isaack, the Bula Power assistant chief, was arrested when the Anti-Terror Police arrested Isaack Mohammed Abdi and Noor Yakub Ali linking them to a planned terror incident.
This was after it emerged that the two suspects had illegally registered to obtain Kenyan ID cards in Mandera East.
Quickly, the detectives swung into action and their preliminary investigations revealed that it was Mr Isaack who had approved the ID application of the two.
The administrator is suspected to have facilitated procurement of an acknowledgement for registration slip or the ID waiting card for the terror suspects who were arrested while planning abduction of a team of foreign nationals engaged in construction of a sewer line in Mandera town.
A local chief speaking on condition of anonymity, due to sensitivity of the matter, said President William Ruto’s announcement is a trap to the local administrators.
“What the president did was purely political when in reality he was setting us and our assistants up for a jail term. We shall have terrorists get these IDs in the name of political numbers only for crime and terrorism to increase in the country,” he sad.
He said it would not be easy to deny anyone the ID because all the applicants will troop to their offices driven by local politicians who will not stand with the chief on trial.
“Actually under the new plan, there is nothing like vetting. The applicant walks into your office, you identify him or her, they proceed to the Huduma Center and pay the Sh300 then the process kicks off. You will understand its consequences once this applicant ends up committing serious crimes later,” the chief said.
He alleged that some administrators were contemplating resigning to save themselves from the President’s trap.
However, Mr Yussuf Ali Abdi, the Principal Chief, Garissa County said even without vetting, it is easy for administrators to identify aliens.
“Chiefs and their assistants are finding themselves in trouble whenever an alien is arrested having obtained the ID card simply because they are the ones who confirmed the nationality of the applicant,” he said.
He revealed that the chief or his assistant are the only members of the vetting committee who imprint their left-hand thumb on the form 136A.
“Every time someone is found to have committed a crime where an ID card is recovered, a search is done at the National Registration Bureau and it is known who was involved in issuance of the card,” Senior Chief Abdi said.
Asked why none of the vetting committee members sign or imprint their fingerprints on the same form, Mr Abdi said it remains the sole responsibility of the chief or his assistant to confirm the residence or origin and the nationality of the applicant.
“Chiefs and their assistants know almost everyone in their areas of jurisdiction. If an applicant comes and tells you I am a son or daughter of so and so, as a chief you must know that parent being referred to,” he argued.
“It is not difficult to point out a foreigner. The accent of the Somali language of someone from Ethiopia and Somalia differs with Kenyan Somali. You can tell from the language the applicant is from where,” Mr Abdi added.
In some incidents, the local administrators are tricked into getting the wrong applicants processed according to the Garissa principal chief.
“We have incidents where an alien comes with an ID card of a relative from Kenya to prove their nationality and the chief or the assistant chief without knowing approves the same. We are a common community divided by the borderline but still interact freely in Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia,” he said.
The five elders in the vetting committee are there to help identify applicants but when things fall apart, it is the chief or his assistant to carry the cross.
“These other people will deny confirming the application despite having attended the meetings. There is nothing to confirm their attendance and approval of the applicant as being a Kenyan citizen,” he said.
In Mandera, the County Criminal Investigations Officer (CCIO) Pius Gitari said the Bula Power assistant chief was arrested because investigations revealed that it was him who confirmed the ID applications of the two terror suspects.
The suspects are said to have crossed into Kenya from Somalia sometime last year and immediately applied for the ID cards.
With the Kenya ID cards, the two could freely operate in Mandera and any other place in the country unbothered by the security agencies.
The suspect had already paid a Kenyan Sh100,000 to facilitate abduction of Chinese nationals working on a sewerage project in Mandera town.
Another Sh300,000 had been budgeted to transport the abductees to El-Ade in Somalia from Kenyan soil.
A suspect in the triple murder in Eastleigh on October 21 and identified as Hashim Dagane Muhumed, an Ethiopian, is believed to have fraudulently obtained an ID card in Mandera North.
Muhumed, an ex-policeman in Ethiopia, has since been charged with the murder of Walis Daud, her 12 year old daughter Nuseiba Dahir and her niece Amina Abdirashid, 23.
Muhumed acquired a Kenyan ID card in Mandera North before heading to Nairobi where he obtained an interim driving licence.
Muhumed is alleged to have killed his wife and three children in Ethiopia before migrating to the country and further killing his girlfriend whose body parts were found in Langata.
Chief Abdi warns that administrators engaged in corrupt deals to facilitate acquisition of ID cards will have to carry their cross.
“We have some people with corrupt mentality but they should know that when caught, they shall be answerable to their deeds,” he said.
In March 2014, Bula Mzuri chief in Garissa town was arrested by the anti-corruption officers for allextortion.
Last year, Shabah sub-Location chief in Garissa was charged at Milimani Law Courts in Nairobi for aiding illegal registration.
