House team to probe Nkaissery over ID cards

Interior Cabinet Secretary Joseph Nkaissery has been summoned to appear before National Assembly’s Committee on Implementation to explain why millions of Kenyans have not been issued with national identity cards.

The committee raised the red flag over increased number of Kenyans without the crucial documents due to unnecessary bureaucracy surrounding the issuance process across the country and accused Mr Nkaissery of failing to take the issue seriously.

Mr Nkaissery is expected to appear before the House team on June 9 to explain why his ministry has failed to address the bottlenecks facing registration of Kenyans as citizens despite receiving huge budgetary allocations.

TARGET NUMBER

Chairperson Soipan Tuya said her committee has been seeking answers from the minister on how many of the projected 1.2 million Kenyans, who attained the age of 18 years between 2014 and 2015, have been issued with identity cards.

“As the committee, we still feel this issue was not been given the focus. We are not attaching the value it should have,” added Ms Tuya at Flamingo Hotel on the side line of the committee’s two day retreat.

The committee accused Mr Nkaissery of providing misleading information that 14 Huduma Centres are used to process identity cards.

“At Huduma Centres were told they don’t process new identity cards, they are only replacing the lost ones,” said Ms Tuya.