A Kenyan lawmaker is accusing President William Ruto’s government of playing tricks with national identity cards to keep people in the Mt Kenya region from registering as voters.
Woman Representative Njeri Maina made the claims on Wednesday, April 1, while speaking at the burial of former Senator Daniel Karaba in Kirinyaga County.
According to Maina, the government is deliberately slowing down the issuance of ID cards in some areas while fast-tracking others.
“We have received information that certain regions are being given priority, and others are simply being ignored,” Maina told the crowd.
She warned those in power that IDs are not a favour but a right for every Kenyan.
Without a national ID, a person cannot register to vote. Maina argued that this is no accident. She believes it is a deliberate scheme to reduce the number of eligible voters in the Mt Kenya region before the next election.
The lawmaker did not hold back. She urged residents of Kirinyaga to stop waiting quietly and start demanding what belongs to them.
“If they refuse to give you the IDs, we will storm those offices in Nairobi,” she said.
Her remarks come at a time when many Kenyans across the country are complaining about long delays in getting their identity cards. Some applicants say they have been waiting for months with no clear answers.
Meanwhile, the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) has already tried to calm similar rumours. Just a day before Maina’s speech, the IEBC dismissed as fake news reports claiming that the commission was ignoring voter registration in Western and Nyanza regions.
The commission asked the public to only trust information from its official website and verified social media pages.
On the ID issue, the government has announced a new process that it says will deliver identity cards within six months.
But for Maina and many residents of Mt Kenya, that is not good enough. They want answers now, and they want action before it is too late to register to vote.
