President William Ruto has made a u-turn on charging fees for accessing national Identity and has declared that all Kenyans will be issued with (ID) cards at no cost.
The directive comes as a relief for Kenyans who have been paying Ksh.300 to obtain the vital document even as the government had hinted at increasing the charges to Ksh.2,000 before the gazette notice issued on November 7, 2023, was revoked.
The government had intended to increase the fee for first-time ID applications to Ksh.1,000 but reviewed the cost downward to Ksh.300.
The fee for the replacement of lost IDs was also reduced to Ksh.1,000 from the intended Ksh.2,000.
The president, while on a tour in Nairobi’s Kibra slums, said he would also abolish bureaucracy and bias surrounding the issuance of IDs.
“Nimesema maneno ya ubaguzi kwa mambo ya ID tuyatupilie mbali; kila mwananchi apatiwe ID. Natangaza nikiwa hapa Kibra ya kwamba kitambulisho ipatianwe bila malipo yoyote. Kila mtu apatiwe kitambulisho bila malipo na kwa mpango ambao hauna ubanguzi kwa Wakenya,” said Ruto.
The government is set to issue ID Cards to prisoners, border counties, students to boost health insurance access to the Social Health Authority (SHA).
According to Immigrations Principal Secretary Julius Bitok, marginalized groups will also acquire the important identification document.
“I would like to announce today while I am in Kibra that identity card issuance should be done without any form of payment,” he asserted.