NAIROBI, Kenya – The government will issue new Maisha Cards to all eligible Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) candidates before the conclusion of this year’s exams, Immigration and Citizen Services Principal Secretary Julius Bitok has announced.
The move, targeting over 965,000 candidates, aims to facilitate smoother access to university and other tertiary institutions.
Appearing before the National Assembly’s Education, Research, and Technology Committee on Tuesday, PS Bitok emphasized that the initiative, led jointly by the Ministries of Interior and Education, is designed to ensure students turning 18 do not face delays in accessing critical services like Higher Education Loans Board (HELB) loans, scholarships, and other post-secondary opportunities due to missing identification.
“We have mobilized our registration officers across the country to issue Maisha Cards to eligible candidates, allowing them to pursue higher education without obstacles,” Bitok said.
He added that this proactive approach would address the common challenge of students being unable to join institutions because of delayed ID issuance.
The Maisha Card application process has also gone digital, with pilot programs currently running in Huduma Centres and National Registration Bureau offices in county headquarters.
Bitok explained that this paperless system is expected to significantly speed up the process, with cards now being issued within 10 days.
“You apply on the eCitizen portal, then complete your biometrics at any Huduma Centre or NRB office. The data is transmitted in real-time to our headquarters in Nairobi,” he said.
In response to concerns raised by the committee about previous delays in issuing IDs to university-bound students, Bitok attributed the backlog to court injunctions that had temporarily halted the issuance of Maisha Cards.
This resulted in a stockpile of 600,000 unprinted cards. However, he assured lawmakers that the government had resolved the issue by acquiring new printing equipment and implementing a 24-hour work schedule.
“We now have the capacity to print 32,000 cards per day, and we’ve cleared the backlog, with over 1.8 million cards printed so far,” Bitok stated.
The PS also addressed the concerns regarding the compatibility of Maisha Cards with HELB’s application portal, revealing that the system had been reconfigured to accommodate the card’s extra digit, which had previously caused technical issues for loan applicants.
The exercise is part of the government’s broader push to streamline access to essential services for young Kenyans as they transition into adulthood and higher education.
The move, targeting over 965,000 candidates, aims to facilitate smoother access to university and other tertiary institutions.
Appearing before the National Assembly’s Education, Research, and Technology Committee on Tuesday, PS Bitok emphasized that the initiative, led jointly by the Ministries of Interior and Education, is designed to ensure students turning 18 do not face delays in accessing critical services like Higher Education Loans Board (HELB) loans, scholarships, and other post-secondary opportunities due to missing identification.
“We have mobilized our registration officers across the country to issue Maisha Cards to eligible candidates, allowing them to pursue higher education without obstacles,” Bitok said.
He added that this proactive approach would address the common challenge of students being unable to join institutions because of delayed ID issuance.
The Maisha Card application process has also gone digital, with pilot programs currently running in Huduma Centres and National Registration Bureau offices in county headquarters.
Bitok explained that this paperless system is expected to significantly speed up the process, with cards now being issued within 10 days.
“You apply on the eCitizen portal, then complete your biometrics at any Huduma Centre or NRB office. The data is transmitted in real-time to our headquarters in Nairobi,” he said.
In response to concerns raised by the committee about previous delays in issuing IDs to university-bound students, Bitok attributed the backlog to court injunctions that had temporarily halted the issuance of Maisha Cards.
This resulted in a stockpile of 600,000 unprinted cards. However, he assured lawmakers that the government had resolved the issue by acquiring new printing equipment and implementing a 24-hour work schedule.
“We now have the capacity to print 32,000 cards per day, and we’ve cleared the backlog, with over 1.8 million cards printed so far,” Bitok stated.
The PS also addressed the concerns regarding the compatibility of Maisha Cards with HELB’s application portal, revealing that the system had been reconfigured to accommodate the card’s extra digit, which had previously caused technical issues for loan applicants.
The exercise is part of the government’s broader push to streamline access to essential services for young Kenyans as they transition into adulthood and higher education.
