PS Kibicho announces plan to issue IDs to six-year-olds

By adminx

Posted on 7 June 2022

Interior PS Karanja Kibicho has announced plans to issue identity cards to six-year-olds under the Huduma Number programme.

The PS noted that the cards will be known as Minor’s Huduma Card with the government intending to distribute it under the National Integrated Identity Management System (NIIMS) programme.

Kibicho added that kids will be given a unique number during birth registration which will later be used in registering them for the Minor’s Huduma Card when they turn 6 years old.

“When you are born you get a birth notification, after which a birth certificate with a number is generated. Then at the age of six; you go to school where the Ministry of Education will want to register you under the National Education Management Information System (Nemis) and give you a Nemis Number,” the PS explained.

The PS also noted that the unique number will also be used when applying for a National Identify Card.

On why the government settled for six-year-olds, Kibicho explained that at six-years-old the child’s facial biometrics are already well formed, and can therefore be captured.

For foreigners and refugees, Kibicho said they will be given different Huduma cards under the programme in order to access government services.

The PS also spoke on the delay in issuing of Huduma Number cards.

He said matching the collected data with existing databases to ascertain the validity of the new registry has caused the delay in distribution of the cards.

“What we have in our records must match what is in the database 100% for us to be sure that the person who presented him or herself before us is the person we shall admit as a Kenyan.