The issuance of the new third-generation National Identification Document, that has captured more elaborate information, popularly known as Huduma Namba cards has hit a snag in Nakuru County due to lack of motivation for picking them.
The Nakuru County Registrar of Persons, Isaac Korir, said despite the numerous short messages they have sent to those who registered only 3,577 have responded out of the 75,586 cards which were received from the headquarters last month.
He noted with concern that some of the issues hindering efficient distribution were lack of eagerness since their customers already have the second generation Identification Documents (ID) that serves the same purpose as the Huduma Namba Card.
Interviewed by KNA in his office on Monday Korir appealed to wananchi to change their negative attitude towards the Huduma cards in order to expedite and speed up the nullification of the second generation ID cards.
“According to the government’s initial plan, the second generation IDs should be terminated by the end of this year but the slow response by our customers may contribute to the extension of the period,” said Korir.
Besides, he said some people might have deliberately registered using different or non-existence mobile numbers, hence the short messages were going to the wrong recipients. He urged those who registered to check with their offices.
Korir said they have distributed the Huduma Namba Cards to all the eleven sub-county offices and Deputy County Commissioner’s Offices to enable their applicants pick from the nearest delivery point.
In addition, he said there might be a negative misrepresentation of the cards among wananchi that was hampering the positive response to their messages.
However, he assured them that it was the most secure card and in a world rampant with conmen it was the best identification card, which cannot be tampered with.
He commended the residents of Naivasha and Nakuru East who have shown more positive response and have at least picked ten per cent of their Huduma Namba cards adding the least response was from Kuresoi Sub-County. He was speaking during an interview with KNA at his office.
By Veronica Bosibori