Street families to be issued with national ID cards
What you need to know:
This will be the first time that street dwellers will get IDs, making them eligible to vote.
- For one to receive an ID, one needs a birth certificate and a copy of an ID of either parent.
The largest percentage of the street people lack the necessary documents required for the registration.
Street families will for the first time be issued with national identity cards as the government steps up efforts to boost registration.
According to Interior Principal Secretary Karanja Kibicho, the National Registration Bureau will take the campaign to the street families, including those that dwell in dumpsites.
This will be the first time that street dwellers will get IDs, making them eligible to vote.
However, the largest percentage of the street people lack the necessary documents required for the registration.
For one to receive an ID, one needs a birth certificate and a copy of an ID of either parent, documents that they lack with many having been born and raised on the streets.
But, the process is expected to be modified, especially in terms of the documentation and methodology used to determine citizenship.
Dr Kibicho said the ministry would use a different formula to prove the citizenship of the street families.
“They lack documents such as parents’ national identification cards or birth certificates. This has often barred them from gaining State recognition, and yet they are genuine citizens by birth,” said Dr Kibicho.
The registration would enable a fair allocation of funds, which is mostly based on the population of an area with the PS saying the street families had been enslaved by poverty and lack of fair opportunity.
The registration is expected to start at the Dandora dumpsite in Nairobi later this month and will later be extended to other places.
