By Christopher Omondi
The application of identity cards has been a tiresome experience to the youth especially in my community of Kondele ward in terms of the tiring process involved in order to obtain one. In recent conversations with young people in my area who have been pushing to get identity cards it`s clear there needs to be reviews on how it should be done in order to enable the application process is just and welcoming for all applicants.
Just like in every other place in the country the identity cards application process starts from the chief’s office with one required to get a signature of both the chief and assistant chief, however in my community the youths have raised complaints about the availability of both the chief and the assistant in their offices, “It can take up to a week to find the assistant chief in her office at Kosawo hall and it’s the same case with the chief, they are never in their offices, at times we have to look for them even in there houses’’, said Nathaniel Onyango a young applicant who grew frustrated of the situation.
From there one is supposed to take the documents to the county commissioners office which is located far up town and thus concerns raised over the distance and cost of getting there, “Huduma center is very far from where we are here in Kondele and even when we manage to get there it`s always crowded because people from other areas such as; Migosi, Nyalenda, Obunga and Nyamasaria are all sent here for the county commissioner’s signature, this allows so much room for corruption’’. Said Joseph Yonga.
Another concern raised was about the waiting period before receiving the identity cards as many have claimed to have waited for two months with some which hard errors taking close to five months to get to the applicants this is despite the government announcing last year to have adopted a 24 hour printing of national identity cards to clear a backlog of 400,000 pending applications after delays were attributed to the printing machine and a court order that stopped printing of third generation identity cards as was announced by the then principal secretary of immigration and citizen services ambassador Julius Bitok. However, in recent times there is still complaints from people within Kondele over pending applications.
It’s clear that the process is frustrating and tiresome to the people in my community and thus clear indication from the governance side why the process is still stalling in my community.
