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Nandi East Deputy County Commissioner Ngalia Ndaya has stated that Maisha Number will enhance government budgeting especially in key sectors like education noting that once implemented it will provide the necessary information required during the allocation of resources.
The administrator who was speaking during the sub County public participation session on the proposed Registration of Persons Act 2024 and the Civil Registration Act 2024 amendments, noted that Maisha Number will enable generation of National Education Management Information System (NEMIS) on time since the government will have obtained the information on the number of children who join school in a given period.
He noted that in the current system many school going children are not captured in the government funding due to lack of birth certificates which is a requirement to generate NEMIS thus resulting in low capitation as compared to school enrollment.
Ndaya also noted that this number will help identify the elderly who have attained the age that should qualify to benefit from cash transfer for the elderly hence allocate enough cash for the same on time.
Chiefs, sub chiefs and residents who attended to give their views during a public participation forum held at Nandi Hills stadium on the amendment of the Registration of Persons Act 2024 and Civil Registration Act 2024 held at Nandi hills stadium. Photos by Ruth Mainye
“Maisha Card is a digital identity card that will link a number of documents such as birth certificate, driving licenses, NHIF among others thus reduce the bulkiness of documents. The same unique number issued at birth will be used in the NEMIS as well as in the Identity Card. This will help the government have data on children joining school thus allocate enough resources for the population,” explained DCC Ndaya while sensitizing the residents to enable them give their views on the proposed rules on identity cards, birth certificates as well as death certificates.
He further noted that with the digital card there will be minimal fraud cases that have been experienced because people will have unique numbers from birth all through to death adding that in the current technological era this digital card will be the best suited in different areas.
“People’s looks keep changing, a reason why an identity card should always be replaced after a certain period of time. With the microchip card expiring in 10 years this will be the most effective way. Technology keeps changing thus the Maisha Card which is designed to fit the current world is appropriate,” he pointed out.
Kenya Plantation and Agricultural Workers Union (KPAWU) chair Eliakim Ochieng, who is also a resident of Nandi East Sub County, proposed that the government consider including a clause in the registration form that will indicate that a person is living with a disability, adding that a number of physically challenged people lack the card meant for people living with disability due to the tedious processes to obtain it hence disadvantages them in a number of areas due to lack of identification.
“We support the amendment on the registration of persons as well as the civil registration. Since the digital card will have a Maisha number which becomes a single identity for all records, we propose that the government introduces a clause on the application form that will indicate if a person is disabled,” noted Ochieng.
The residents supported the digitization of registration records and the provision of Maisha number however they proposed that the new application be made free of charge while they suggested that Maisha card replacement charges be reduced from Sh1000 to Sh500.
In addition, the members of the public also suggested that the government introduces a personal contact feature on the Maisha Card to enable tracing of the owner in case it is displaced.