The government has launched a countrywide civil registration drive, targeting an estimated one million Kenyans without identity documents.
While marking the World Identity Day in Homabay County as part of the grassroots security engagement dubbed ‘Jukwaa la Usalama’, Interior and National Administration CS Kipchumba Murkomen noted that Kenya has made major strides to ensure its citizens are not disenfranchised and rendered stateless.
Speaking at the event held at the Governor’s park, the CS said for years, bureaucratic hurdles and outdated processes denied many Kenyans the right to identify, rendering some stateless, youth disenfranchised and regions struggling to access government services.
In response, the CS announced new directives to ensure equity and inclusive with the abolition of the authentication fees and promised to review the Sh 500 fee for late application of the birth certificate.
” Effective today, the Civil Registration Services will no longer charge any authentication fees for birth certificates when applying for National Identity cards or passports,” stated the CS.
Although Mr Murkomen acknowledged that while the birth and death registration within six months is free, a fee is currently charged for obtaining a birth and death certificate.
” The ministry is reviewing this policy with a view to making the first issuance of these certificates free of charge,” said the CS.
The CS affirmed that the government is committed to meeting its mission of delivering legal identity to every Kenyan, without exception.
In line with President William Ruto’s directive to abolish the fee for first ID applicants to align with international standards, the CS launched a real-time Biometric ID verification system with three key modules.
The key highlights include an online solution which verifies a person’s identity even without a physical ID, secondly, it integrates with the current live capture system to verify all ten fingerprints and issue a secure verification certificate and finally, authenticate the validity of a physical ID against the data stored in the chip ..
‘This system will in time be linked to secure digital wallets, enabling safe and convenient access to e-government services, healthcare and digital payments,” said Mr Murkomen.
Accompanied by PS Dr Raymond Omollo (Internal Security and National Administration) and Dr Belio Kipsang ( immigration and Citizen Services), DIG-APS Gilbert Masengeli, among top ministry, regional and county security officials, the CS called on locals to take advantage of this initiative to get the crucial documents.
He added that, towards equity and fairness, the government abolished the extra vetting requirement for identification for certain communities and areas within the border counties.
