The government has made a critical announcement regarding Maisha cards, with Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) candidates set to receive the third-generation IDs sooner than expected.
Students transitioning out of High School will get them before the end of the national examinations, according to State Department for Citizen Services Principal Secretary Julius Bitok.
The announcement comes as 965,501 registered candidates commenced their national examinations on Tuesday, October 22.
The motivation behind wanting candidates to have Maisha cards as soon as possible was to aid registration for tertiary education, access to the Higher Education Loans Board (HELB) and scholarships.
Since February 2024, the government has been determined to speed up the issuance of the Maisha Cards amid a spate of challenges faced. One of the biggest hurdles was a court order barring the Ministry of Interior and National Administration from processing new ID cards. The High Court lifted the previous orders in February 2024.
Previously, students who were fresh from High School had to physically go to different locations to apply for national IDs. The tedious application process was made worse by the long wait to have the document processed, as it would take weeks before they were ready.
Further, individuals had to physically go to their respective stations to check in on whether their ID is ready.
The result of this lengthy wait led to some individuals forgetting about their ID cards. In August 2024, the National Registration Bureau (NRB) put this challenge into focus after they announced that the department was struggling to deal with over 400,000 uncollected National Identity cards.
Another challenge the government has faced was apprehensiveness from Kenyans, who emerged with a string of concerns about the new-generation IDs. For one, citizens wanted to know why the IDs were subject to expiry after a decade.
This concern was debunked by Bitok, who clarified that the renewal was necessary for rectifications of one's personal information where necessary like biometrics and changes in one's facial structure.
The government believes the Maisha Cards will put the country in line with regional and international best practices on the standardisation of essential features of one's ID - which is arguably an individual's most important document.
Digital features in the Maisha Cards also make it extremely difficult for the cards to be forged or tampered with - another key factor why the government wants to adopt them as soon as possible.
