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{
    "id": 1111919,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1111919/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 215,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. (Eng.) Hargura",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 827,
        "legal_name": "Godana Hargura",
        "slug": "godana-hargura"
    },
    "content": "I know of a case where in one of my sub-counties, the whole registration process was stopped on the pretext that some non-Kenyans were being registered. You ask yourself why the officers cannot do their work diligently and make sure that those who are being registered are Kenyans, instead of stopping a process and making Kenyans suffer. There was no registration for two years because of that kind of an allegation. Officers should take their work seriously. The other problem with the registration is the funding aspect. Registration officers especially in the counties and sub counties get very little funding. You will find a registrar in a sub county of 10,000 square kilometres with officers who have to travel 200 kilometres to go and register Kenyans but with a limited budget for that process and there is no vehicle. Sometimes it is a self-defeating process when you assign officers roles and you do not fund them but you expect them to provide services. It is only those with access to the headquarters who get services. One has to make a trip of 200 kilometres to go and apply for an identification card. That is unfair because other Kenyans walk to where the registration officers are. Once the applications for identification cards come to Nairobi, it takes a long time. If you go to the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) offices, you will find that they have a charter. They will tell you that your identification card will be out within 30 days but it takes about six or seven months and sometimes it is not out. They also have to find a way of producing identification cards fast and where Kenyans can pick them once they are out. I had to travel for 200 kilometres to pick my identification card. That is very unfair because sometimes people struggle. We should think of a herdsman who has to look after his animals instead of going to look for an identification card when there is a chief’s office nearby. The Government should make sure that services are taken as closer as possible to the people, so that an identification card is picked once it is out. Another problem is staffing. When you have two or three officers based in a sub county headquarters that is 200 kilometres from where some Kenyans live, then it is difficult for even the officers to provide services. So, there is need to devolve further to maybe the former divisional headquarters which are close, or they should perhaps take it to the location level where we have chiefs. That way, we can be sure that Kenyans will get services. In my area, registration has been done twice for a period of five years. In some areas it has been once. Since that time, how many Kenyans have qualified to get identification cards? Some documents like birth certificates that people talk about do not exist in some parts of this country where people are nomads and the nearest place to get them is from the registrar who is based at the county headquarters. That could be 500 or 600 kilometres from where they are. It is because of the recent education requirement that parents have to undergo that trouble. They have to look for a birth certificate before a child is registered to sit for Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE). Otherwise they never used to bother because the structures of providing this document are not even there."
}