• It is not clear how many Kenyans are captured in the database.
• He took issue with leaders who are requesting for extension of the 45 days for registration
Image: STEPHEN ASTARIKO
Dadaab MP Mohamed Dahiye has asked the government to fast-track removal of Kenyans captured in the refugees database and who cannot acquire IDs.
Dahiye said removal of citizens from the refugees database should run together with issuance of IDs and Huduma Namba.
He spoke to the press in Dadaab town on Tuesday.
“We have been talking to the government for years about this exercise but the response has been slow. I want to urge the President to personally intervene in this matter,” the MP said.
It is not clear how many Kenyans are captured in the database. They registered as refugees at the height of drought in the early 1990s to get aid.
Speaking separately, Livestock Marketing Council chair Dubat Amey has taken issue with a section of Northeastern leaders he says are misleading the pastoralist communities on Huduma Namba.
In a statement to the media on Tuesday, Amey said claims by the leaders that the National Integrated Identity Management System (NIIMS) is meant to isolate the region are untrue.
Amey was reacting to critics of the exercise who allege that it is meant to alienate pastoralists.
On Friday last week, governors from the ASALs counties faulted the government over lack of civic education on the exercise.
Speaking in Lodwar town after the conclusion of a three-day summit , the governors warned the exercise as designed would lock out the majority of residents in ASALs counties.
“This country is served by one Constitution. There is no separate Constitution for the residents of Northeastern and for the rest of the country. As a region, we are obliged to embrace government programmes,” Amey said.
He took issue with leaders who are requesting for extension of the 45 days for registration, saying they should first take advantage of the days provided for.
“It is unfortunate that the we are putting the cart before the horse. Let us register as many people as possible within the 45 days then we can seek extension in case there are pastoralists who are not captured because of one reason or the other,” Amey said.
He acknowledged there are pastoralists who have moved to neighbouring countries of Somalia and Ethiopia in search of pasture and water for their animals and may not returned by the time the exercise elapses.
Northeastern regional commissioner Mohamed Birik on Monday urged the political class in the region to disassociate themselves from propaganda on the ongoing exercise.
Speaking in Habaswein sub-county in Wajir South where he had gone to inspect the registration, Birik said that there are a lot of rumors peddled to frustrate the exercise.