National Registration Bureau Reuben Kimotho found himself in a tough scenario to explain to the joint select committee why his office has not issued Kenyans with Identity Cards.
Kimotho told the committee that this year his office has issued more than 9.2 million eligible Kenyans are yet to be registered as voters, despite having valid national ID cards.
“This year alone we have issued more than 9.2 million IDs. The voter registration which was supposed to be continuous is the one that has stalled but we have discharged our duties,” said Kimotho.
He said the electoral agency can make use of NBR’s manual and electronic database because its automated fingerprint identification system matches with data of all applicants and forestalls multiple registration and impersonation.
He asked IEBC to embrace new technology and register people electronically.
“The government should introduce a multi-purpose electronic identity card, which will support e-government and e-commerce functions, it would be recommended IEBC use the same card for registration and e-voting,” he said.
The director said in 2012 the government waived fees for both new and duplicate ID applications to facilitate voter registration, hence no Kenyan should be left out of the voters’ list.
Machakos Senator Johnson Muthama said that he has reports that the Bureau is registering underage which is a criminal offence sentiments that were echoed by Gatundu South MP Moses Kuria.
In response, Kimotho said that those are incredible information since they rely on birth certificates and information from the area chiefs.
“We use the children birth certificates to issue IDs. Alternatively, we rely on information from chief hence there is no likelihood of issuing IDs to underage Kenyans,” added Kimotho.
The committee was formed to address on issues of the embattled electoral body, IEBC.