Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen, on Friday, February 21, revealed that the government plans to eliminate the process of applying for national identification cards.
Speaking after a high-level security meeting, Murkomen announced that the new development was in progress, with a modern, high-tech system set to replace the current process.
According to Murkomen, the new system will register Kenyans from birth and automatically issue a national ID once they reach the age of 18. The CS noted that this initiative aligns with the government’s broader plan to implement a uniform form of identification.
“We are going to leverage technology to ensure that we have a record of every citizen from birth. From that point, every individual will be captured in our system,” Murkomen stated.
“This question of even applying for ID will become a thing of the past. We will capture your data in such a way that when you are 18 you just get your ID automatically. You do not have to go through a process of application,” he added.
At the same time, Murkomen defended President William Ruto’s move to abolish the extra vetting for ID applicants in border counties citing it was a well-thought-out move.
This was after Ruto promised to sign an executive order stopping the compulsory vetting of Identification card applicants in the Northeastern region.
Speaking in Mandera on Tuesday, February 4, President Ruto stated that the process was discriminatory as it only applied to residents of a select group of Kenyans from six counties; Tana River, Mandera, Garissa, Wajir, Isiolo, and Marsabit.
"The discrimination that has been ongoing in Kenya for 60 years that when a child from Mandera, Wajir, Garissa or Tana River goes to apply for an ID card gets asked more questions than those asked in maternity wards is going to stop," Ruto declared.
Murkomen echoed his superior’s statements noting that the move will have proper guardrails to ensure that the IDs are issued to ‘legitimate’ Kenyans and not just anybody.
“This is an issue that is national and not confined to one area. We must separate the vetting from security. We are not going to abdicate our responsibility in making sure that there is safety and security in our country and that the right people are getting the IDs,” he noted.
“Only citizens of the republic are going to get the IDs. Whether you are from North Eastern, Coast, Rift Valley or Nairobi, we will subject every Kenyan to one system of identification that will ensure that we have the right Kenyan getting the ID,” Murkomen remarked.
