• Duale said only when the said persons are de-registered will they be guaranteed the issuance of relevant identification and registration documents.
• The former National Assembly Majority Leader said over 20,000 Kenyan Somalis in Garissa and Wajir counties have no IDs.
Image: HILTON OTENYO
Members of Parliament are now pushing for national Identity Cards to be issued in schools.
The legislators supported a petition by Garissa MP Aden Duale seeking to compel the government to explain why youth from certain regions of the country are not issued with ID cards.
According to the petition, Duale wants the National Assembly through the Departmental Committee on Administration and National Security to investigate the matter and compel the Interior Ministry to de-register all persons registered as refugees yet they were vetted and confirmed as genuine citizens.
Duale said only when the said persons are de-registered will they be guaranteed the issuance of relevant identification and registration documents.
The former National Assembly Majority Leader said over 20,000 Kenyan Somalis in Garissa and Wajir counties have no IDs.
He said the said youth were registered as refugees which was the only alternative they had in securing relief food occasioned by massive drought experienced in the 1990s.
The legislators said issuance of IDs before the youth leave secondary school will play a key role in reducing issues of double registration as highlighted in the petition.
"Students should be issued with IDs before they leave school. This will help us clear the backlog in the registry at the registration of persons," Bomachoge Borabu MP Zadoc Ogutu said.
Nominated MP Wilson Sossion in his remarks said registration of persons should be automated and linked to birth certificates so that immediately someone obtains the age of 18 years, their ID card is automatically processed.
"Many youths not only in the Northern region but across the country have been denied access to their rights because they lack IDs, we must come up with ways to ensure that this problem is dealt with," he said.
The legislators said the Somali community dominates the business sector but many have ended up being frustrated because of the crucial document.
To them, the office of the registration of persons they say should be devolved so that it reduces the number of days one has to wait or travel from remote areas to collect their document.
"Mr Speaker under the EAC we have allowed the use of IDs as a valid document. As a result, we have an increase in intermarriages, especially between the border communities. This matter should therefore be looked at conclusively to cater for such women from the international community who get married in the country to have the document," Kajiado South MP Katoo Ole Metito said.
Eldas MP Adan Keynan said many youths have suffered collective punishment and as a result left to seek solace in refugee camps.
The MPs said since the issuance of the IDs is a compounded problem, the entire office of the registration of persons should be overhauled and better structures put in place to deal with the situation.