Youth must get IDs for 2012 poll to be fair

Youth must get IDs for 2012 poll to be fair

By Hassan Ole Naado

Responding to a question put across to him about how long he would take to start delivering some results if appointed a commissioner with the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC), Mr Mohammed Alawi Hussein said he would need about three months to familiarise himself with the workings of the Commission.

Mr Alawi, a lawyer by profession and currently working for the Kenya Ports Authority, was fielding questions when he faced the panel interviewing applicants for the position of commissioner to the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission.

However, the chairman of the interviewing panel, Dr Ekuru Aukot, heartily responded that there would be very little time for induction and familiarisation, therefore those who will be appointed IEBC commissioners will have to hit the road running because the country is very much behind schedule as far as putting in place the necessary structures to conduct elections next year.

This example is cited not because of the performance of Mr Alawi who was being interviewed, but because of Dr Aukot’s correct observation that the country is behind schedule in terms of establishing the IEBC.

Given the enormous task that the electoral and boundaries body is supposed to undertake before next year’s historic elections, we agree with Dr Aukot that the country is dangerously behind schedule on this matter, and if nothing is done to speed-up the process, it might be virtually impossible to conduct the 2012 general election under the new constitution.

It is important to remind ourselves that the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission is established under Article 88 and has two main functions. The first main function being that of conducting or supervising referenda or elections to any elective body or office established by the constitution, and the second being that of delimitation of electoral units which involves reviewing the names and boundaries in the manner specified under Article 89.

Given that the 2012 general election must be conducted under provisions of the new constitution, there is no denying the fact that if the structures needed to conduct next year’s poll are not put in place by the end of this year, then Kenyans may either have to postpone the elections or conduct them under hastily assembled structures. If the latter is the case, then Kenyans run the risk of conducting ineffective polls next year and thereby erode the little confidence that the people may have in the electoral process—bearing in mind the sham that was the 2007 election.

However, as much as efforts to speed up the establishment of the IEBC are highly appreciated, the Kenya Muslim Youth Alliance (KMYA) has noticed that the country seems to have ignored a very important component without which next year’s elections may not be described as free and fair—the issue of national identity cards.

As the government and other organisations pay attention to the establishment of the electoral body in preparation for the historic elections, nobody seems to be giving top priority to the issuance of ID cards to the millions of young Kenyans who will be eligible to vote in 2012.

The question then is; if we, as a country, succeed to put in place an effective electoral body by next year, who then do we expect to vote in the 2012 elections if the young people who form the majority of the electorate don’t have national IDs?

Have we suddenly forgotten that people need IDs in order to vote? And what would be the purpose of the IEBC if people who are supposed to participate in the elections are not able to do so?

These concerns may sound frivolous at this time, but we can be sure that we shall feel the gravity of their implication next year when we shall be confronted by a huge number of young Kenyans demanding to know why they are being disenfranchised merely because they don’t have IDs.

And this is why we suggest that, as the process to establish the IEBC continues, similar efforts should be directed to ensuring that the millions of young Kenyans who don’t have IDs get them as quickly as possible so that when the voter registration exercise commences, nobody who is eligible to vote is left out.

According to statistics by the Ministry of Immigration and Registration of Persons, close to four million young Kenyans may not register as voters for the 2012 because they are not likely to have acquired IDs by then.

This is a very serious issue because by failing to issue national IDs to over four million young applicants, it looks like the government is just about to deny the same number of Kenyans their constitutional right to participate in the 2012 elections.

We have put emphasis on the issue of IDs because, as an organisation that addresses issues affecting the youth, especially Muslim youths, KMYA wishes to bring to the attention of the Minister for Immigration and Registration of Persons , Mr Kajwang’, the specific obstacles that Muslim youth encounter when applying for IDs.

For no apparent good reason, Muslim youths are required to undergo an extra, and often, very humiliating and frustrating vetting process when applying for national IDs.

For example, why should Muslim youths who have been born and brought up in Nairobi be required to go back to the ancestral districts of their parents in order to apply for IDs? This requirement is very discriminatory because it assumes that all Muslims in Nairobi are migrants.

But the question is; where does the government expect Nubian Muslim youths of Kibera to go in order to find the ancestral districts of their parents? Has the government suddenly forgotten that Nairobi has always been the home of the Nubian community that resides in Kibera? Or, is the government suggesting that the Nubians of Kibera are not Kenyans?

We ask these questions because it looks like Muslim youth in Kenya have become victims of unexplained discrimination, collective punishment, suspicion and distortions when it comes to issuance of national ID cards.

A look at a number of pending ID applications by Muslim youths reveals discrepancies that raise eyebrows. For example, application No. 136A 0630440 by Saad Ali Saad, a Nubian youth of Kibera, was rejected because someone at the Registrar of Persons affixed a wrong photograph on the application!

According to explanatory notes attached to Saad’s application, the information of the applicant is authenticated through fingerprints and other documents submitted by the applicant, but the application has a picture of a stranger affixed on it. The same has happened to application No. 136A 0630488 by Ismail Ali Ramadhan—also a Nubian Muslim youth from Kibera whose information is authenticated through fingerprints and other supporting documents but with a wrong picture affixed on the application.

The common discrepancy in the two applications is the wrong picture being affixed on the authentic application form. Interestingly, in both cases the strange pictures are of Somali youths—meaning than someone at the Registrar of Persons intended to use the information of these two Nubian applicants to issue national IDs to other people.

And because of the discrepancies which are not of their making, both Saad and Ismail have been directed to go for another round of vetting. Unfortunately, the vetting is held only once a month, meaning that these two Muslim youths will have to wait longer to get IDs—if at all they will ever get them.

Such obstacles have made it very difficult for many youths in Kenya to acquire IDs, and at any forum where Muslim youth, especially, gather to discuss issues affecting them, it is common to hear many lament over the frustrations they undergo when seeking an ID.

The tedious, time-consuming and at times ridiculous process many have to undergo is no laughing matter. Among the many documentary evidence youth are asked to present to the Registrar of Persons include birth/school leaving certificates, death certificates of parents/guardians (if deceased) among others—all these in an effort to establish the authenticity that the applicant has Kenyan ‘roots’.

That aside, it is also emerging that besides tabling the above documentary evidence, youth have to contend with the so-called vetting committees which are meant to establish and verify the authenticity of applicants being Kenyan.

These vetting committees comprise of village/clan elders, youth and women representatives, the provincial administration (District Officer / District Commissioner), Criminal Investigation Officers, officials from the Registrar of Persons, just to mention but a few.

Whereas KMYA appreciates the fact that matters of national security are delicate and should be handled with utmost care so that undeserving people don’t acquire Kenyan identification documents, the vetting committees are themselves not transparent hence defeating the very purpose of their establishment.

For instance, Ali is a Nubian elder who sits on a vetting committee in Rift Valley. Despite being a father to 16 grown up children, three of his grandchildren have not been able to get Kenyan IDs because they “fail the eligibility test.”

“Our grandchildren are the most affected yet we, being their grandparents, are Kenyans. They have presented all the documentary evidence required that includes birth and school leaving certificates to the committee and have elders confirmed to know them. But they are being taken round in circles by being sent to local chiefs who again refer them back to the same vetting committee.”

Noor and Hassan are also members of such committees and they too express frustrations.

“It is ridiculous for Muslims to be pitted against themselves. It defeats the purpose of the whole process that even after ‘clearing’ those seeking a Kenyan ID card, they end up being denied the same,” Noor laments.

From these complaints, it appears that someone somewhere does not trust Muslims who sit on vetting committees to clear another Muslim to acquire an ID. If this is the case, KMYA calls upon Minister Kajwang’ to gazette new and clear regulations to vet Muslims applying for these documents instead of allowing the current circus to continue.

If Muslims can be trusted to vet others to acquire IDs, why should they not be trusted to do the same for fellow Muslims?

Source- http://www.thenewdawn.info/