A section of Garissa MCAs has strongly defended the scrapping of the Identity Card vetting process for citizens in the northeastern region, arguing that the time has come for all Kenyans to be treated equally, regardless of their ethnicity.
Last week, during his tour of the northeastern region, President William Ruto signed a proclamation abolishing the vetting requirements for Kenyans living in the border counties. The vetting process, introduced in 1990 on national security grounds, had long been a point of contention.
Critics of the move argue that removing the vetting process could open doors for hostile elements to acquire Kenyan ID cards, thereby infiltrating the country’s security systems and posing a potential threat to national security.
However, in response to these concerns, Garissa MCAs, led by Baraki Ward MCA Hassan Geley, dismissed the comments made by Trans Nzoia Governor George Natembea, who had suggested that the decision would facilitate al-Shabaab militants in acquiring Kenyan IDs. Geley called the remarks “misleading” and politically motivated.
Speaking to the press outside their offices, the MCAs emphasized that the people of the northeastern region have long been marginalized and denied their rightful access to national identity cards. They insisted that with the President’s move to ease the process, there is no longer a need for outsiders to dictate how they acquire their ID cards.
“We are not children of a lesser God. We are Muslims, and we are Kenyans who belong in this country. Our people should get their ID cards in the same way that other citizens in other regions acquire them. We are law-abiding citizens, not al-Shabaab,” Geley stated.
“This has been a topic of discussion and we want to tell the critics that they will not lecture our people on how to get the ID cards. Getting an ID card is anchored in our constitution in the ways; by birth, by neutralization and by registration and we are Kenyans by birth,” he added.
Abasigale MCA Mohammed Sheikh expressed regret that it has often taken residents of the northeastern region up to six months to receive their ID cards due to the burdensome vetting process, which has caused many to miss out on opportunities that require official identification.
“We want to inform other Kenyans that Kenya is one and there should not be people trying to suppress others just because they come from a certain part of this country. The president wants to unite this country and we should all agree when he is trying to solve a problem that we have been facing,” Sheikh said.
