Residents of Kiambu County have been advised to collect their Huduma Namba cards from Administrative centers and the office of the Registration of persons in Kiambu soon after receiving a notification message on their phones.
Speaking to KNA in his office yesterday Kiambu County Registrar of Persons Mr. John Njuguna called on the applicants who were registered in the first phase of the registration exercise to visit Ndumberi, Tinganga, and Kiambu registration offices respectively for collection of the said cards.
He said the cards were ready and they are in the process of ensuring Kiambu residents collect their Huduma Namba cards. “We have been mandated to distribute these cards alongside other administrative offices in our sub-county where the residents will pick them from,” said Mr. Njuguna.
“The first message will notify you that the card is ready and you must choose the location where the card must be sent for you to collect. The second message will tell you that the card is ready for collection and subsequently guide one to select the pick-up point that was convenient for them” he added.
Mr. Njuguna also called on those who have received the notification message to collect their cards immediately without wasting time to avoid delaying the process of distribution of the cards, thus causing a backlog.
“Some people may have lost their phones or stopped using the numbers they used to register themselves that they indicated during registration. Some, he said may have changed their sim cards for some reason or the other and this may have been posing a challenge to the collection exercise which has been slow” he added.
He further noted that applicants can also check at the registration offices if their cards have been processed and also for those who have misplaced the mobile telephone lines they used to register with.
The Registrar of Persons further cautioned that a second party cannot collect the Huduma Namba Card on behalf of an applicant.
“I am in charge of Tin’gan’ga and Ndumberi divisions and we started issuing the cards in February this year.”
The cards were initially being collected from the office of the County Commissioner and they have now been delivered to the office of the Registrar of persons in Kiambu.
He said the packaging of the Huduma Namba cards comes with a security tape which when broken, all applicants in the specific box receive a message. This is an indication that many people will receive a message instantly and the need for them to respond promptly once they received it.
The delivery report Mr. Njuguna noted has a bar code that they scan it, a message is immediately sent to the people whose cards are in the specific box informing them that their cards have been delivered” Mr. Njuguna explained to KNA.
Kenya is seeking to degazette the use of national identification cards in order to facilitate the complete rollout of biometric digital identification cards.
Huduma Namba, also known as the National Integrated Identity Management System (Niims), was launched in 2019 with the aim of serving as a single source of personal identification for Kenyans and foreigners living in Kenya.
The Huduma Card includes the unique number as well as other personal information. The card will be given to Kenya adults and minors over the age of six years.
“The Government has so far distributed Huduma Namba Cards to all the 850 National Registration Bureau (NRB) offices located in all the 350 Sub Counties across all the 47 counties, “Government spokesperson Cyrus Oguna told journalists during a presser on 1st April 2021.
According to the government, only 10% of huduma cards issued have been obtained by their owners despite plans to phase out national identification cards in favor of huduma cards only 1.3 million Kenyans who have been informed that their cards are ready have yet to collect them.
He said most members of the public fail to respond to messages alerting them that the cards are ready for collection.
The National Government Administration Officers are in charge of the 10 days RRI initiative aimed at distributing the Huduma Namba cards.
The exercise, Mr. Njuguna said will pave way for the second phase of the exercise which is envisaged to register the 10 million people who were not captured in the first phase where 36million were registered.
By Lydia Shiloya and Velma Mukhwana
