DP William Ruto has directed the department of immigration to speed up the processing of ID cards to members of pastoralist communities.
Ruto said it is the right of every Kenyan citizen to be issued with an identification card once they attain the required age.
He was speaking in Garsen where he inspected the Garsen Technical Training Institute and also launched an agricultural mechanisation programme in Hewani, Tana River constituency.
Ruto asked the leaders to safeguard the gains achieved in reconciling communities in the region.
“It is our responsibility as leaders to ensure we build bridges of friendship, brotherhood and unity between all the tribes and religions so that we can live as a people of one united nation," he said.
He appealed to the pastoral community to shun traditional practices that have been a stumbling block to education in the region and take their children to school.
He asked them to take advantage of the technical training institutes to acquire technical skills so that they can also produce technicians and artisans and not just pastoralists.
The Deputy President told the pastoralists to adopt modern livestock farming methods, a move that will increase the quality and quantity of the milk and meat they produce.
He was accompanied by area Governor Hussein Dado, deputy Governor Jire Siyat and Senator Abdi Bule.
Other MPs present were Ibrahim Sane (Garsen) Ali Wario (Bura) and Halima Duri (Tana River County).
Sane said under the Jubilee administration the county has witnessed a lot of development projects unlike before.
He said: “We have decided to educate our children and focus on development activities and shun tribal conflicts”
But he added that residents should be given identification cards on time so that they can exercise their democratic right come 2017.
Duri lauded the Government for constructing a TTI in Garsen, a move that she said will ease the burden of traveling long distances searching for post secondary education.
Bule called for peace among the communities living in Tana River county.
He said: “There will be no development without peace among the communities living in this region.”