The department of immigration and registration of persons has re-introduced fees for replacement of national identity cards, in a move to increase non-tax revenues.
At a time when the government is struggling to raise enough avenues by seeking to have government entities with targets achieve them, the move is seen as strategic to earn from the identity cards which thousands of Kenyans replace often due to thefts
Principal Secretary for Immigration Gordon Kihalangwa told the National Assembly’s committee on Security late last month that the department collected about Sh10.5 billion in 2016.
The Immigration department — under which issuance of passports, visas, work or residence permits and national IDs falls — is one of the biggest source of non-tax revenue for the government.
In the notice Dr. Fred Matiang’i the Cabinet Secretary for Interior said “the Registration of Persons Rules is amended in rule 8 by deleting the words “shall not pay any fees” appearing in paragraph (6) and substituting therefor the words ‘shall pay to the authorized officer a fee of one hundred shillings’.”
Dr. Matiang’i, directed the National Registration Bureau to start levying Sh100 for replacement of lost, torn, worn out or mutilated IDs effective March 15th 2018.
Section 16 of the Registration of Persons Act, among other provisions, allows interior minister to proscribe the fees for a duplicate ID or for initial registration.
A person replacing a lost ID requires a police abstract while those with unserviceable one must surrender it to a registration officer and apply for a renewal, which takes about 10 days.
