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{
    "id": 57394,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/57394/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 485,
    "type": "other",
    "speaker_name": "",
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    "speaker": null,
    "content": "we introduced something very fundamental in it. We introduced the thumb print as a way of identifying whether the holder is the owner. It is important for security reasons to know whether the person who holds the identity card is actually the owner. When we now insisted that everybody who had the first generation identity card surrenders that identity card and gets the second generation, most people did not because they knew somehow they obtained those identity cards easily but fraudulently because some information was not true. So, the issuance of the second generation identity card has been a bit difficult because of that security concern; that we make sure that whoever gets our identity card is actually a Kenyan because that is what the law provides. The law provides that we register Kenyans and not everybody who is within the borders in Kenya. For that reasons, we have found it a bit difficult. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, when I got into the Ministry, I found that the country had been divided into border districts and non-border districts. I am in one of those areas which are considered to be border districts because Suba, where I come from, borders Uganda and Tanzania in the lake but to get to Entebbe in Uganda from Mbita you can travel by a very fast boat for 12 hours and yet it is considered to be a border district. I have always told them that there is no border between us and Uganda. In fact, it is more difficult to get a Ugandan in Mbita than to get a Somali there because the Somali fish in Mfangano Island and they are the biggest investors in fishing in the lake. Of course, there is the voter registration. It is provided in the Elections Act that before you can register, you must have an identity card. So, it becomes very important and it has become our way of life. It has become the most primary document that anybody would need. I agree with you that without an identity card you can do very few things. You may not even travel because every time somebody might be suspicious that you are not a Kenyan and you have to show your identity card. We used to register in schools and we can still do that in schools. The only problem right now is that our officers who are four or five stay at the district headquarters. We cannot keep a large population of employees more than that. If they have to leave the office at the district headquarters to go to schools, chief’s camps and markets then they will have to travel and maybe spend outside. Therefore, that needs some allowances. We have given the chiefs, the assistant chief and the elders a lot of power to tell us whether this person is the son of So and So. In fact, it has come out that many people, not even on the Somalia border, but even in my own area--- I will give you an example, which I dealt with only recently. A young man finished standard Seven in Mr. Ogindo’s constituency and went to work in Kericho. He needed an ID to work and he was still young; so, he lied that he was the son of so-and-so and his age was this. He was given an ID in the name of his cousin. Later on his teachers went and fetched him from the tea plantation. They told him, “You are a good boy you must go back to class. We will pay for you”. He went and was admitted to the university to do engineering or another course. Then when he had to produce his ID, he knew that the name in the ID was very different from the name in his certificates. This was because the teachers used his real name, but the name he had on his ID was different. He was in trouble. He then applied and said, “I confess I lied. This was not me. This is now me”. It took Mr. Ogindo a lot of pain to explain in affidavits and so on; evidence from the chief, evidence from the Special Branch until we were satisfied that he was the real boy. Only recently, he got his ID and his loan."
}