The Mistery Of Uncollected ID Cards

Identity cards continue piling up in registration offices in coast. I was surprised when officers working with registration bureau intimated me that they have 50,000 identity cards in the whole of coast. A spot check at Mombasa Huduma revealed that they have over 4000 identity cards. The regional office Bima has more than  5300.

In these offices more than 300 cards are collected every day. Id cards are processed within the timelines. For instance I made a lady in Huduma Centre who had applied an id card 22^nd August 2016 by 1^st September 2016 the id had already come out. The registration office in Nairobi is processing 30,000 cards every day. 

It is important that wananchi should collect identity cards after making applications. Sometimes I wonder when people claim that there is discrimination in id production and that the government is not fulfilling its mandate of issuing identification documents to the people yet the pile up of id cards is shocking.

Issuance of id cards has been a sensitive and thorny issue for some time because some people have complained that some regions have been deliberately denied their right by the government especially headquarters. These allegations are unfounded as officers who work at bureau headquarters come from all corners of the country and they cannot allow people from their region to be denied id cards.

The department of registration is appealing to those who have applied for id cards to visit registration offices and pick their cards especially in coast where id cards continue to pile up in registration offices.