Why some are sceptical about Ruto's ban on ID vetting process

President William Ruto issues a passport to a resident after opening an Immigarions office in Garissa on February 06, 2025.[PSC, Standard]

When one turns 18 in Kenya, they are required to apply for a national ID.

In most parts of the country, this involves visiting a National Registration Bureau office for registration and fingerprinting, after which they wait about a month for the card to be ready.

However, in some northern counties, the process has been more complicated and even expensive. It includes a citizen verification procedure that has been in place for decades in the former Northern Frontier District.

Many people living in the region cite this process when accusing the government of treating them like second-class citizens.

They argue that the vetting process they undergo when applying for a national ID is discriminatory. Those responsible for the vetting, they claim, often exploit the process to make illegal money by demanding bribes.

Aware of these grievances, President William Ruto leveraged the issue as a campaign tool in the last election.

When he embarked on a development tour of the four North Eastern counties in February, Ruto publicly signed a presidential proclamation ending the vetting.

“I want to assure the people of northern Kenya that the discrimination witnessed in the region for the last 60 years will come to an end. When a child from Mandera, Wajir, or Garissa applies for an ID, they are asked many questions. This must stop forthwith,” he said.

He added that the decision would not lead to non-Kenyans obtaining Kenyan IDs, as all legal procedures would still be followed.

“It is not that IDs will be handed out randomly—there is a procedure that must be followed. However, all Kenyans must be treated equally,” Ruto stated.

Despite this order, people living near the Somalia border are concerned that implementing the directive may be a challenge. For years, they have faced vetting committees comprising community elders, National Registration Bureau officers, local administration officials, and security agencies.

Abdullahi Khasida, who underwent the process, says vetting usually occurs once a year and sometimes does not take place for up to three years.

Those wishing to obtain a national ID are required to register with the local chief, who compiles the list of those to appear before the vetting committee. In some cases, vetting is postponed several times.

Among the application requirements are academic and birth certificates,  the latter which many lack due to the high number of home births and a shortage of birth registration officials. An age assessment from a hospital is also required, at an additional cost.

“We are not certain how the government plans to implement this. We really doubt if that will be the reality on the ground,” Khasida said.

She added: “Normally, you’ll present your documents to the committee, which asks questions related to those documents, and some questions that are unrelated, just to test you, like whether you speak like a Somali, to judge whether, based on your thinking, you are Kenyan or not,” she told The Standard in an interview.

According to her, some applicants are intimidated by the interviews, and those with little or no education struggle through the process and can get rejected at this stage.

Successful applicants have their fingerprints taken, as well as those of their parents, a community elder, and the area chief.

The waiting time for the ID card, she says, is at least three months, and sometimes as long as six months. If the card is not obtained, the process starts over.

Chiefs and other officials have been accused of turning applicants’ desperation into a cash cow.

“When they first visit the chief’s office, applicants are asked to pay between Sh2,000 and Sh5,000, depending on the area,” said Khasida, who is a programme manager at Haki na Sheria, a rights group in Garissa.

Some residents have tried to escape these challenges by relocating to other parts of the country, but at the ID application stage, they are still tied to their place of origin.

When Khasida’s cousin, who was born in Nanyuki, applied for his ID, he was referred to Garissa, where his mother was born.

“Some of the people we applied with got similar treatment,” said Khasida’s cousin, who did not want to be named.

When Amnesty International conducted a survey on Kenyans’ readiness for a digital ID, Maisha Namba, it found that vetting was a major concern for border communities, minorities, and immigrants.

“The lived experiences of select groups in acquiring identification documents have been curtailed by rigorous vetting processes. Most of them expressed skepticism about their inclusion and decried the bureaucratic process characterised by inordinate and inexplicable delays,” said Amnesty International Kenya’s Technology and Human Rights Manager, Victor Ndede.

He expressed concern that while vetting may be abolished on paper, it could continue through other means. “The government previously abolished the vetting process for its discriminatory nature; however, from the findings of Amnesty Kenya’s report, the vetting still persists,” he said.

“Communities in northern Kenya may still face challenges in accessing IDs due to bureaucratic inefficiencies or a lack of government ID infrastructure. Continuous monitoring and policy adjustments are necessary to ensure the proclamation’s success,” he added.

According to Ndede, human rights take precedence, though security concerns regarding porous borders are valid.

He argues that the vetting violates various constitutional provisions on human rights, including those on legal recognition, equality, and non-discrimination, which can only be limited with reasonable justification.

“The government could implement universal biometric registration systems, which are impartial and efficient. Additionally, community-based verification processes involving local leaders could ensure fairness while maintaining security,” he proposed.

A universal biometric registration system would involve a nationwide drive to collect data that would result in an inclusive identification system, useful even for creating the voter register.

In addition to abolishing the vetting, the government has rescinded its decision to charge for ID applications.

In a Gazette notice dated March 19, Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen amended the previous charges to zero. “The Sixth Schedule of the Registration of Persons Rules is amended by deleting the expression ‘Sh300’ appearing as fees for the item ‘Not Previously Registered’ and substituting it with ‘Nil,’” the notice reads.

This followed Ruto’s directive last week, reversing a 2023 policy that had introduced Sh300 fees for first-time ID applicants and increased charges from Sh100 to Sh1,000 for replacements.