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Isiolo chiefs face the sack, prosecution for demanding bribes during ID issuance

National IDs awaiting collection. (Photo: Huduma Kenya)

By Waweru Wairimu | Sunday, June 2, 2024

County Commissioner Geoffrey Omoding asked youth who could have faced challenges in the past to apply for the crucial documents, assuring the State's commitment to process them within the shortest time possible.

Isiolo County Commissioner Geoffrey Omoding has warned chiefs and their assistants against demanding bribes from youth applying for Identity Cards, saying those found culpable will lose their jobs and be prosecuted for the offence.

Following the State's recent abolishment of the mandatory vetting process in six border counties of Isiolo, Marsabit, Mandera, Wajir, Garissa and Tana River which was introduced following the Shifta insurgency in the 1960s, chiefs have been tasked to help in the identification of youth from their locations.

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Tasking of chiefs, their assistants and other National Government Administration Officers seek to fast-track the processing of the documents that are proof of one's nationality.

"The barriers that were there before have been removed and young Kenyans will just need to be identified by their chiefs to get IDs which will enable them to access formal employment and exercise their democratic rights," Omoding said, adding that chiefs will be held responsible if the process is flawed.

Omoding asked youth who could have faced challenges in the past to apply for the crucial documents, assuring the State's commitment to process them within the shortest time possible.

Isiolo County Commissioner Geoffrey Omoding. (Photo: Waweru Wairimu)

He asked residents to report chiefs demanding bribes to facilitate the process for legal action to be taken against them.

"If they ask for money to help you get an ID, come and report to me so that we can deal with them. We cannot allow a government officer to frustrate the process that is part of the government's quest to ensure equality in the provision of various services," he said.

Northern Kenya residents had for a long time decried alleged discrimination on religious grounds in accessing the IDs for being subjected to vetting to ascertain their nationality with some reporting being asked to provide their parents and grandparents' IDs and birth certificates, a requirement not provided for in the law.

The vetting in the Northern frontier counties, the State previously said, was due to security concerns over Kenya's porous border which promotes drug and human trafficking and terrorism activities.

Besides paying to facilitate vetting, the applicants have been forced to wait for years to get the IDs with the inordinate delays deepening the discrimination and making the youth vulnerable to radicalisation.