Back to factory settings: President Ruto reverts to zero charges for issuance of ID after introducing fee
According to the president, the directive is aimed at ensuring all Kenyans have IDs
Almost a year after his Kenya Kwanza administration controversially introduced charges to the crucial identification document, President William Ruto has ordered that issuance of National Identity Cards (IDs) be made free of charge, reversing the 2024 contentious introduction of fees for taking new IDs and replacements.
The Head of State made the pronouncement during the fourth day of his Nairobi County development tour while in Lang’ata constituency as he said Kenyans should not be charged for taking IDs.
“I have said that the bias in the issuance of IDs should be removed. All citizens should be given IDs. I also want to announce here in Kibra that IDs should be issued without any charges and any bias,” Ruto said.
According to Ruto, the directive is aimed at ensuring Kenyans have IDs and no one is left out.
However, it is not clear whether the directive shall also apply to those seeking replacement.
In 2023 November, the government gazetted new charges of processing IDs and their replacement, which faced a lot of opposition, leading to the cancellation of the gazette notice by the then Interior Cabinet Secretary, now Deputy President Kithure Kindiki.
Following the uproar, in 2023, later in the following months after public participation, Kindiki lowered the charges from Ksh 2,000 for replacement to Ksh 1000, while new issuance was lowered to Ksh 300 from Ksh 1,000.
While touring the North Eastern region recently on a development tour, Ruto signed a proclamation scrapping the 60-year ID vetting procedure for the region.
He blamed his predecessors for not succeeding in the same.
The twin developments are seen as targeted at netting more voters in both northeastern and regions predominantly perceived as strongholds of former Prime Minister Raila Odinga with whom he recently signed a cooperation agreement.
A total of 882,000 voters from Mandera, Wajir, Garissa, Isiolo, and Marsabit counties participated in the 2022 presidential election. Residents of these counties have, however, previously complained that their numbers were underreported in the 2019 national census, and the High Court recently ordered for mini-census be conducted in the region.
