President William Ruto has clarified that national identity cards will only be issued to legitimate citizens in the North Eastern region, which has for decades suffered discrimination.<\/p>\n
Speaking during the 2026 Madaraka Day celebrations in Wajir County, where the national event was held for the first time, the President revisited his decree on the issuance of national IDs. He spoke emotionally about how the move had eliminated unnecessary bureaucratic hurdles and scrutiny that had denied many deserving residents access to identification documents and the rights that come with them.<\/p>\n
However, the President set the record straight that the vetting process had not been abolished. Instead, he said, the reforms were aimed at ending discrimination against specific communities based on their ethnicity or place of birth.<\/p>\n
While highlighting the significant development milestones in Wajir, which he attributed to his administration\u2019s commitment to justice and inclusivity, Ruto said his government remains committed to ensuring equity and equality for all Kenyans.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday, we make history. For the first time in 63 years of self-rule, a national celebration, Madaraka Day, is being hosted in Wajir, in the heart of Northern Kenya. This is what we meant when we said we will leave no one behind,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The President went on to share the lived experience of Bakaja Ibrahim Osman, a resident born in Wajir in the early 1960s and how he had to endure a frustrating journey in pursuit of a national identity card.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis parents were born here, but for years, every time Osman went to apply for an identity card, the most basic document of citizenship, he was treated not as a Kenyan, but as a suspect, an illegal alien. Every time, he was asked for extra documents, subjected to additional vetting, and sent from office to office, year after year,\u201d Ruto recounted.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor more than six decades, this was the lived experience of hundreds of thousands of Kenyans in Northern Kenya. Citizens were forced to prove they belonged through a system built on suspicion, ethnic profiling and bureaucratic humiliation,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Although Osman may have been denied opportunities for much of his life, the shared encounters had a happy ending.<\/p>\n
Ruto cited the example of Mariam, born in 2007, and many other young people who recently turned 18 and were able to obtain their national identity cards without unnecessary obstacles.<\/p>\n
Beneficiaries of the presidential proclamation signed in March 2025, they walked away with IDs in their hands, unlocking opportunities they rightfully deserve, just like their peers in other parts of the country.<\/p>\n
Ruto maintained that his administration is determined to reverse decades of marginalisation in the region.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor too long, some said Northern Kenya was too difficult, too remote, too dry and too insecure to deserve development. That was wrong. We are dismantling that legacy of exclusion,\u201d he assured.<\/p>\n
Wajir Governor Ahmed Abdullahi thanked the President for the bold move, saying it had given the people of the region a renewed sense of belonging and inclusion in the nation\u2019s development agenda.<\/p>\n
\u201cLifting of discriminatory vetting in the issuance of IDs was a profound act of political courage. You did more than issue IDs to deserving Kenyans, you restored our dignity and gave us a sense of belonging\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n
The post Only legitimate Kenyans will get IDs, Ruto clarifies<\/a> appeared first on KBC Digital<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" President William Ruto has clarified that national identity cards will only be issued to legitimate citizens in the North Eastern region, which has for decades suffered discrimination. Speaking during the 2026 Madaraka Day celebrations in Wajir County, where the national event was held for the first time, the President revisited his decree on the issuance […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-142761","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142761","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=142761"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142761\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}