Candidates sitting for this year’s Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) will receive the new Maisha Card before the exams conclude.
In a statement on Tuesday, October 22, Julius Bitok, Principal Secretary for Immigration and Citizen Services announced that the initiative targets candidates aged 18 and above among the 965,000 registrants. The program aims to facilitate easier access to university education and other tertiary institutions for these students.
Bitok informed the National Assembly’s Education, Research, and Technology Committee that the collaboration between the Ministries of Interior and Education ensures that students who enroll in universities and colleges do not face disadvantages due to missing identification documents.
“We have mobilized our registration officers across the country to issue Maisha Cards to eligible candidates. This will enable those who qualify to join local or international universities, apply for Higher Education Loans Board (HELB) assistance, scholarships, and other post-high school opportunities,” Bitok stated.
He also highlighted that the Maisha Card registration process has transitioned to a paperless format. A pilot program is currently running at Huduma Centres and National Registration Bureau (NRB) offices in county headquarters, aimed at ensuring card issuance within 10 days.
“We’ve gone paperless. Candidates can apply for their ID on the eCitizen portal and then visit any Huduma Centre or NRB county office for their biometrics. This information will be relayed in real time to the NRB headquarters in Nairobi,” Bitok added.
Committee members, led by Julius Melly, inquired about the measures taken to resolve delays in issuing ID cards for candidates seeking university admission earlier this year.
Bitok attributed the delays to multiple court injunctions that stalled the issuance of Maisha Cards, leading to a backlog of 600,000 unprinted cards. He explained that the government had successfully lifted these orders and addressed the backlog by investing in a new printer and implementing a 24-hour work schedule.
“Our average daily applications total around 10,000, while our printing capacity stands at 32,000. So far, we have printed over 1.8 million cards, and 1.29 million have been collected,” Bitok reported.
He urged applicants to collect the more than 569,000 uncollected cards, noting that those whose IDs are ready have been notified via SMS.
In response to MPs’ concerns about issues with HELB applications due to an extra digit on the Maisha Card, Bitok assured them that the lender’s portal has been reconfigured for compatibility.
