Local Chiefs who have been demanding bribes so as to assist in processing Identity Cards will be arrested and prosecuted, Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen has said.

Murkomen who was speaking after a basement tour at the National Registration Bureau headquarters in Nairobi said the government is set to issue identity cards to 1 million Kenyans in one year.

“More than one million Kenyans are who have attained the required age do not have Identity Cards, and our aim is to reach them whenever they are mostly the marginalized areas,” Murkomen stated

The CS added that owing to the new technology Kenyans can now get their Identity card in a matter of days.

“The introduction of the live capture system, which we have been piloting, has drastically reduced the time taken to process IDs,” he sated

Adding that, “the delivery to the various registrations happens between three and seven days, using the live capture machines, this technology is important for us because Kenyans are demeaning IDs for various needs,”

At the same time the CS stated that to speed up issuance across the country, they will deploy the machines in all 1450 wards noting that there are about 400,000 Identity Cards that have not been collected urging Kenyans to collect them.

“We have too many IDs in offices across the country, during the Jukwaa la Usalama we agreed with the Chiefs that we will create a programme they will directly take the IDs to the villages,” he stated

The CS said Kenyans applying IDs afresh will not be charged, but replacing lost documents will be charged asking Kenyans to report Chief who demand bribes during the application process.