Ministry: Applicants to get IDs before voting day

New Identity Cards will be issued to Kenyan applicants before the next elections due in 2012.

Immigration minister Otieno Kajwang' told MPs Wednesday that his Ministry has working overdrive to ensure the documents are ready before the General Election.

To meet the deadline, the minister told Parliament, 60,000 ID cards are being printed per day.

But Mr Kajwang' said millions of IDs were still at various districts registration and chiefs offices in the country waiting for collection from the applicants.

“We have already cleared the backlog of all applications and my staff now working 18 hours a day to ensure that applicants get their IDs on time,” he said.

There have been fears that Kenyan youths would be locked out of the polls since IDs are required to vote.

He was responding to a question by Dr Abdi Nur (ODM-K) who wanted to know how long it takes a Kenyan to get an ID card upon application.

Mr Kajwang' said his visits to district registration offices found millions of IDs lying uncollected. He urged local leaders to "pass information" to their constituents to have them collect the ready documents.

The minister exuded confidence that his Ministry was now efficient in running public affairs and the staff was working with the Provincial Administration to ensure applicants get their IDs on time.

Dr Nur asked the Ministry to improve on access to information by setting up a website for instance, to post all processed documents.

Mr Kajwang' also assured MPs that he would post the information in the Ministry’s website and also carry out a campaign in vernacular radio stations.