NAIROBI, Kenya – The government will roll out a countrywide mobile registration drive in just under two weeks, targeting more than one million Kenyans who have yet to acquire national identity cards.
Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen said the exercise will begin in 11 days, focusing on underserved regions including Northern Kenya, Eastern counties and parts of the Coast.
Speaking after touring the National Registration Bureau (NRB) offices in Nairobi, Murkomen said the Kenya Kwanza administration is keen to ensure that no citizen is left behind in accessing identification and government services.
“We are working very hard to ensure Kenyans who are not registered, and those seeking replacements, are served in record time. Starting the other week, we will roll out the mobile registration programme in pastoralist areas,” the CS said.
Murkomen disclosed that over 400,000 ID cards remain uncollected, with more than 270,000 of them being duplicate requests.
He noted that recent reforms have streamlined the registration process, including the scrapping of additional vetting for residents in border counties and the waiver of verification fees for birth certificates.
“These interventions have boosted applications, especially among marginalised communities,” he said, adding that IDs are vital for enrolling in social health insurance, accessing social protection for the elderly, seeking jobs abroad, using mobile money services and exercising the right to vote.
The CS also reassured the public of robust security checks to prevent fraud, such as multiple registrations or irregular acquisition of IDs by non-citizens.
He further announced plans to procure 300 additional live capture machines over the next three months, which will be distributed across all 1,450 wards to expand mobile registration capacity.
Murkomen praised the NRB for modernising its systems, noting that with new technology, Kenyans can now obtain IDs within minutes, with delivery to registration centres taking between three and seven days.
