Gov’t to clear backlog in issuance of National IDs in 30 days

The government says that it will clear the issuance of National Identification cards in the next one month.

Immigration and Citizen Services Principal Secretary Julius Bitok says that the delays had been occasioned by a breakdown of the printing machine which has now been restored alongside the court case that had stopped the printing exercise.

Currently, 15,000 Maisha cards are being produced daily with over 600,000 produced so far.

“I want to assure Kenyans that our systems are up and running and that we can get our IDs without any delays unlike before when we hand a few challenges with machines and the court case,” said Bitok.

The PS assured Kenyans that printing of maisha cards is being done 24 hours to clear the backlog.

According to Bitok, at least 8000 applications are being made per day.

The government also expects to install a new printing machine next month.

“We have given ourselves about three years to fully transition everybody towards the Maisha digital ID,” he said.