@ppcheti
Residents of Manda Island in Lamu have accused the government of discriminating against them by denying them ID cards.
The island is home to more than 2,000 people, most of them stone miners who settled there in the 80s.
Residents say local administrators have purposefully made it impossible for their children to acquire IDs. They are often asked to return to where they came from to apply for the documents from there.
Most residents are from Nyanza and Western regions and Kilifi county.
Elder Enos Muyale says administrators demand unnecessary documentation just to frustrate their efforts to get IDs. But their children can't get jobs without them.
Locals have accused chiefs and their assistants of being unfair and discriminatory in as far as issuance of thee document goes.
In response, however, Lamu county commissioner Irungu Macharia denied the islanders have been denied ID and said the government was doing the best to clear ID registration backlog all over Lamu.
“Statistics indicate very good progress. However, collection of IDs has been slow. Our National Administrative Officers are working very closely with Nairobi and Huduma Centre in ensuring all deserving Kenyans are vetted on time and get their IDs and Huduma Namba. Those alleging denial should provide statistics. Numbers don't lie,” Macharia said.
“Normally, all you need is a birth certificate for the child, a letter from the area chief and the parents' IDs," Muyale said.
"But now the chiefs here will also ask for more documentation, which they know we don’t have. I came to this place in 1982, but when my son wanted an ID they demanded I produce a letter from the chief of the area I originally came from in Western. That is impossible because I live here now.”
Residents said many of their children who have attained age 18 years and over do not have IDs and have been unable to secure jobs as a result.
“Our kids are born here. Their birth certificate were acquired here. How then do you tell us that they can't get IDs here. That's unfair."
Evans Okundo said youths have been unable to secure jobs at the new Lamu port, Lapsset and other companies as employers insist on IDs, which they don’t have.
Julius Ireri says they have been mistaken for criminals by security agencies whenever they fail to produce their IDs.
“Travelling for us is a nightmare. Our young men and women here have been arrested by security agencies on suspicion of being terrorists just because they couldn’t prove their citizenship by producing their IDs,”Ireri said.
(Edited by V. Graham)
