Form four students will now be able to register for national identification cards as long as they reach the legal registration age of 18 years.
The developments come after the Parliamentary Committee on Administration and Internal Affairs on Tuesday approved the publication of the Registration of Persons (Amendment) Bill, paving the way for major changes in how national identity cards and voter registration are conducted in Kenya.
If enacted, the Bill will make it mandatory for all form four students who have attained the legal age of 18 to be issued with national identification cards before leaving school.
Additionally, Kenyans who will have attained the age of 18 and above will be automatically registered as voters under the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) database.
According to the lawmakers, the proposed amendment seeks to streamline citizen registration, promote youth participation in elections, and reduce the long queues and delays often witnessed at National Registration Bureau offices during voter registration drives.
If the bill were to be approved before the 2027 elections, more Kenyans would have identity cards and be able to participate in the constitutional process.
However, many Kenyans have questioned the motives behind the amendment. Currently, every individual is free to register for an identity document and subsequently as a voter, and this is not a mandatory requirement.
Meanwhile, the government, through the Ministry of Interior, has announced that it will be embarking on a massive mobile ID registration exercise in 15 counties with low registration.
According to Interior CS Kipchumba Murkomen, this will correct historical discrepancies occasioned by the now-abolished extra-vetting for border counties, among other challenges.
''The introduction of the live capture system, which we have been piloting, has drastically reduced the time taken to process IDs. To speed up issuance across the country, we shall soon deploy the machines in all 1450 wards,'' Murkomen said when he visited the National Registration centre in Nairobi.
This comes at a time when over 400,000 ID cards remain uncollected at the centre, with nearly 200,000 of them belonging to first-time applicants.
According to the government, more than one million Kenyans aged 30 years and above are living without national identification cards.
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