Drought, destruction of communication masts blamed for backlog of uncollected huduma cards in Garissa

GARISSA,Kenya, July 10 – The roll out of huduma namba cards has been ongoing across the 47 counties with the national government saying a total of 5.3 million cards have so far been produced and a further 3 million cards already distributed.

Despite the cards ready for pick up, an unprecedented number of Kenyans are yet to collect their cards.

According to the government, Kenyans have the option to select where they would prefer to pick up their cards, however, despite receiving messages on their phones with instructions on how to navigate through the request, many have not done that.

As a result of the delayed response, huduma namba cards are now being delivered to an individual’s home county based on details on their identity cards.

Kenyans can collect their cards at the National Registration Bureau (NRB) offices or ID Offices at the local level.

In Garissa, despite the county receiving at least 22,996 cards, only 9,938 people have collected theirs.

Area county commissioner Boaz Cherutich however says that the county has been plagued with various challenges making it difficult for local administrators to reach wananchi in order to notify them to collect their cards.

“The raging drought in many parts of the county and lack of mobile network as a result of terror activities are the main reasons why there is a huge backlog of uncollected huduma cards at the collecting points,” said Cherutich.

Due to the drought, thousands of residents are said to have migrated to various areas far from their original residence in search of water and pasture for the animals.

With several telecommunication masts having been destroyed as a result of various terror attacks in the county, Cherutich says that many residents might not have received text messages notifying them when and where to collect their cards.

“My office has formally written to mobile service providers requesting them to resume their services, we have promised to deploy security to areas believed to be hot spots for the militants,”  he said.

Local administrators in the county will meanwhile kick off a door to door exercise in conjunction with ‘nyumba kumi’ members across the various sub-counties to sensitize people on where to collect their cards.

Government spokesperson Rtd. Col. Cyrus Oguna recently warned Kenyans to be on the alert, warning against fraudulent individuals sending text messages demanding payment in order to receive their cards.

“We wish to remind Kenyans that the issuance of Huduma Card is free. Nobody should be conned to giving out any money to anyone. Any message purporting to be coming from the government and asking the recipient for any money is fake and should be treated as so,”  said Oguna.

Kenyans who did not register for the huduma namba will have the opportunity to do so, with the government set to announce phase two of the exercise.