More than 800 national identification cards are lying uncollected at the Athi River sub-county's registrar of persons offices.
Addressing the press at the offices in Athi River town on Monday, the area registrar of persons Gideon Njuguna said people turn up in large numbers to seek national IDs better do not return to collect them while ready.
Njuguna said the uncollected identification cards were dated back to the year 2010 to January this year.
He said the documents included those for new applicants and those seeking replacement of lost national identification cards.
Njuguna said most of the cards lying in their offices belonged to those who sought replacements stating that majority of the new applicants collect their national identification cards since they are always excited to hold the document for the first time in their lives.
“Majority of the first applicants are positively responding to collect their national identification cards while a number of those who seek replacement of the documents have got issues, they apply for it but fail to pick them up after they are processed,” said Njuguna.
Njuguna said the number had gone up because some of the new applicants from the region submit their applications for the document in their home districts but become impatient to wait for them to be ready and collect them from stations of application and instead run to Athi River sub- county which is cosmopolitan to reapply creating confusion thereby resulting to more delays in processing.
He said his office had resorted to sending reminder SMS in bulk on the phone to those who had not collected their identification cards to immediately do so.
Njuguna said they were also engaging chiefs in sensitizing the community on need to apply and collect national identification cards while ready alongside distributing them to the owners.
He called on those who had applied for the document to visit the offices and check if theirs were among the cards lying uncollected and collect them.
Njuguna said the office receives an average of 300 new national identification cards applications in a month.