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By Adow
Jubat and Boniface Ongeri
Nairobi, Kenya, October 3, 2009 – He had just hit 18 years in 2006 when
as required by law, he decided to get a national identity card.
Having been born by Kenyan parents in Garissa District, Khalif Hassan
was certain he would easily get the precious document that confirms his
nationality.
As required in this part of the country, he presented himself to a
vetting committee just as a formality to confirm he is a Kenyan.
"I was dumbfounded when the area chief disowned me despite watching me
grow up in the village," Khalif says.
He says he was further shocked to see five youths whom he had never seen
in his entire life in the village being cleared by the committee to be
issued with the IDs. They were said to have come from his village.
"I later learnt that they were from Somalia and had been camping in
Dadaab Refugee camp," he says.
This is the sad situation in North Eastern Province where issuance of
identity cards is influenced by bribery.
The war is Somalia and instability in parts of Ethiopia has seen many
Somalis from those countries seek refuge in Kenya. They are now using
their advantage of sharing a language and culture with Kenyan Somalis to
acquire citizenship.
Vetting committees, based at divisional level have to verify an
applicant’s citizenship before getting the identification card.
Corruption cartels
Members of the committees include the District Officer, District
Registrar of Persons, an intelligence officer, a Criminal Investigation
Department officer, sometimes immigration officers, area chief and local
elders.
CCI investigations and interviews with residents, committee members and
Government officers established that some committee members collude to
give aliens Kenyan nationality illegally through issuance of ID cards.
Mrs Zeinab Mohammud, a former vetting committee member in Garissa
Township accuses the committees of being corrupt.
"Some of the members openly solicit for bribes from foreigners and give
them ID cards at the expense of genuine Kenyans," Zeinab says adding
that she was forced to leave the committee because of the shameless
bribery.
Since the fall of Siyad Barre regime in 1991 that plunged Somalia into
anarchy, Kenyan identity card has become the most sought after document
by Somalia nationals and a major business in North Eastern Province.
Residents of this region have coined the word Kenyanization to refer to
the process of foreigners buying the identity card.
"It is so easy to be Kenyanized," says Mohammed Hassan, as he rubs his
thumb and index finger together as a sign for money.
"With as little as Sh15,000 you can be Kenyanized. But when the
committee becomes stubborn Sh50,000 will soften them," says Hassan, a
Somali national who bought the citizenship.
He acquired the document after paying Sh30,000 ten years ago and has
been busy amassing land under his name.
"I have helped many of my relatives to get the document. I am a Kenyan
by virtue of this document and no one can do anything," he gloats
wondering how one can prove he is not a Kenyan.
Residents in the province know who among them is a foreigner but because
the aliens have ID cards, the Government says its hands are tied. The
foreigners share a language and culture with the residents and have
relatives in Kenya, therefore, making it difficult for one to
differentiate Kenyans from foreigners.
Accomplices in crime
CCI investigations established that some residents are accomplices in
this. They front the aliens as Kenyans after receiving bribes.
"When the foreigners are registered the same residents who helped them
acquire the documents shout the loudest on realizing the foreigners are
giving them competition for jobs, business and property rights," North
Eastern Provincial Commissioner James ole Seriani laments as he admits
selling of nation ID cards is a big problem in the region.
Ole Seriani cited a case in Ijara District where an old man in Hulugho
Division had presented to a vetting committee a Somali teenager whom he
claimed was his son.
"The boy was cleared by the local vetting committee but villagers
disowned him. We are holding the old man and the young man waiting for
DNA tests. If the DNA won’t match they will be prosecuted," the PC says.
Ole Seriani says the Mandera District vetting committee was disbanded
adding the Ijara District committee was suspended after irregularities
were detected.
"In Ijara District, a teenager was presented by a man who claimed to be
his father, but when we called the wife who was supposed to be the young
man’s mother, she disowned him," Ijara DC John Kamau says.
In Mandera, Saadia Abdi, a Somali National confesses she paid Sh15,000
to get an ID card. Recently she lost the document and wanted a
replacement but was asked for Sh5,000 bribe.
"I will have to pay when the committee is reconstituted," she says
confidently.
Ijara DC says it is difficult for officials issuing the ID cards to
differentiate between Kenyan and Somali nationals.
"Under these circumstances the residents know each other. We advocate
for people to be patriotic," he says.
"The local vetting committee was suspended because committee members had
become corrupt, unpatriotic and untamable," Kamau says. "We are looking
for people of integrity."
Mandera DC Francis Lenyangume says the vetting committee in the district
was disbanded because it had been infiltrated by foreigners.
"We know genuine Kenyans who want the document will suffer but the
disbanding is for the interest of Kenyans," he says.
Residents often complain of unfair competition for scarce jobs and
business opportunities from foreigners some of whom are recruited in the
military and other disciplined forces. Corruption in these committees
could be used to help usher into the country people with terrorists
links. "We are thinking of registering all foreigners in schools. The
registration is not to deny the foreigners an opportunity to learn. It
is because we have realized some are using the schools to get national
ID cards," the PC says. In remote Mandera, the PC says, the enrolment in
local schools is mysteriously higher than Garissa and Wajir Districts,
which are more urban.
Garissa District Commissioner Joshua Ogango says despite calls to
abolish the vetting committees, they are the best way to vet foreigners
so far.
"Without the committees we would be registering many aliens. The
province borders Somalia and Ethiopia that host suspected criminal
elements, some linked to terrorists groups. The Government cannot take
things for granted," he says. Nevertheless, residents say the process
has not deterred aliens from acquiring Kenyan identity cards.
"The committees oppress Kenyans and only serve rich aliens," former
Wajir South Councillor Dagane Siyat Kabahai says.
"From the refugee camps, foreigners monitor the dates when the vetting
committees plan to hold their sittings and land like vultures," Kabahai
says. "They are even coached about the areas they will claim to have
come from. The practice has denied genuine Kenyans opportunities."
System’s loopholes
Applicants are supposed to produce their parents’ and grandparents’
identity cards.
The PC says the Government will soon do away with mass registration
because it gives aliens a loophole to sneak in.
"A maximum of 30 applicants will be processed per sitting to ensure
total scrutiny. This will make registration a frequent exercise," he
says.
Ogango says lack of resources and vastness of the settlements forces the
committees to carry the exercise once or twice a year.
Some Kenyans grow old without ever getting their identity card while
rich foreigners get it with ease. "Kenyans usually are reluctant to
bribe to get the document because majority know it is their entitlement
thus they are dismissed and aliens given opportunity," says Khalif Abdi
Farah, coordinator for Northern Forum for Democracy.
"Woe unto those whose parents have personal grudges with any of the
committee members," Farah says.
Recently residents narrated to the Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC)
the challenges they face while seeking the ID cards.
"Some residents have been waiting to be recognized by their country for
more than 10 years," Vincent Musebe of KHRC says. "There are 50-year-old
residents who don’t have identity cards."
In a report titled, Foreigners at home; the Dilemma of Citizenship in
Northern Kenya, KHRC calls for restructuring of ID cards management and
the creation of a centralized database of birth registration to
streamline the process.
Source: The Standard, Tuesday, September 29, 2009
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