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{
    "id": 625091,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/625091/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 409,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Kubai Iringo",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1574,
        "legal_name": "Cyprian Kubai Iringo",
        "slug": "cyprian-kubai-iringo"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, for giving me this opportunity. I stand to support the Motion as amended and thank the Mover and the Member who brought the amendment. Passports and IDs are just one and the same thing because they serve almost the same purpose. They are an entitlement to every citizen in this country and more so to those who need to use them for various purposes. This Motion is timely. As I speak, we have a crisis in this country as far as issuance of IDs and voters’ cards is concerned. It is becoming a big problem. The country is in the election mood and the IEBC is giving those who have not registered as voters an opportunity to register. It is unfortunate because the people who need IDs are more than those who need to register as voters. You find them just waiting there for people to come and register. Many people would wish to do that, but they do not have IDs because of the complexity, ambiguity and slowness of issuing IDs. There is a lot of backlog to the extent that I do not know when it will be completed. In the digital age when biometric is the way to go, I am surprised and worried that the Immigration Department has not thought about going that direction. They keep on piling papers in the sub- counties and counties. They do not even have a vehicle to carry the documents to Nyayo House in Nairobi. Sometimes they even use matatus to transport the documents. It is weird for a country to be registering her people that way. At the end of the day, when they get to Nyayo House, you find piles and piles of documents and they will never get back to the owners. The owners keep on going to the original place of registration for a week, a month or two and many of them despair. When their IDs come, they have already despaired and you find another backlog of IDs not being collected. I find the way we are doing it very absurd. It is high time the Government invests in new technology, so that the system can be decentralized. We should have connectivity such that if you give a serial number in Garissa or Isiolo, it cannot be duplicated in Meru or Kisumu. They argue that if they decentralise the process, there will be forgery of IDs. If there is a database of all Kenyans and we know naturally that finger prints are different, I do not see why we cannot embrace technology which can identify an individual wherever they register. On the bureaucracy of doing the same, why should somebody who can be identified by a parent who is a Kenyan or a chief who has been tasked with the job of overseeing a location, be asked to bring other things like the father’s ID or other documents from the church. It becomes very cumbersome. This is getting a lot of people not to register. On corruption, because they know the problems we have especially in Nyayo House, officers wait for people to bribe them, so that they can process their IDs and those who do not bribe them do not get IDs. It is important for corruption to be looked into. On materials, today I got a message from the registration office in my constituency requesting me to buy them ink for fingerprints and toner for their machine to print photographs. They do not have money and stationery. I have a message here requesting me to buy those gadgets for them as the area Member of Parliament whereas there is Government allocation for that. They should style up and move fast on this one. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, I support the Motion with amendments."
}