Kenya announces more national ID reforms to facilitate service access

The Cabinet Secretary for Interior of Kenya, Kipchumba Murkomen, has disclosed that more reforms are on the way in the national identity sector as part of objectives of the government to expand coverage and allow more citizens to easily access services.

Murkomen gave the hint after a recent meeting with sector stakeholders, he said in a post on his X account.

He stated that he met with the Principal Secretary (PS) for Immigration and Citizen Services, Dr Belio Kipsang, and heads of directorate, to discuss “ways of consolidating our gains and rolling out more reforms in the sector.”

In the last few years, Kenya has introduced several reforms aimed at facilitating the issuance of national ID cards and passports. Other reforms have also touched civil registration, all with the objective of making access to foundational identity easier and more secure.

“The government has already abolished all fees for first-time ID applicants, removed the extra vetting requirement for ID applicants in border counties without compromising security, and fast-tracked the issuance of IDs and passports,” Murkomen said.

In addition to other reforms which include “the scrapping of fees for authenticating birth certificates when applying for IDs and passports, and a waiver for charges on duplicate IDs,” the Cabinet Secretary confirmed that “more changes are lined up to facilitate more efficient service delivery to the public.”

Other stakeholders who took part in the meeting with Murkomen were the Secretary of the National Registration Bureau, Dr Christopher Wanjau; the Secretary for Civil Registration, Paul Mwangemi; eCitizen Services Director General, Amb Isaac Ochieng, Immigration Services Director General, Evelyn Cheluget; Nairobi Regional Commissioner, Gilbert Kitiyo; Commissioner for Refugee Affairs Mercy Mwasaru, and the Secretary for Administration, Serser Chelulei.

For many years, the national ID and passport issuance processes in Kenya were plagued by a litany of challenges, with led to either citizens being unable to apply for the documents, or they waited for long periods before obtaining them after the application process. This led to lingering complaints from users who said those hassles penalised them.

In order to streamline the process and make things easier for Kenyans, a raft of reforms were introduced in 2022. By the close of 2024, then PS for Immigration and Citizen Services, Prof Julius Bitok, said those reforms were paying off, as a huge backlog of national ID cards and passports had been cleared. He also mentioned that significant efforts had been deployed to improve civil registration through digitization.

Officials say there is also a plan, as part of ongoing civil registration reforms, to make it possible for citizen who attain the age of 18 to automatically be registered for a national ID using their civil registration data.

Article Topics

Africa  |  biometrics  |  digital ID  |  government services  |  identity management  |  Kenya  |  Maisha Namba  |  national ID