Kenya has been facing an alleged backlog of ID cards after the Nairobi High Court pulled the breaks on a new digital identification plan to be rolled out by the government.
According to recent figures by the Immigration and Citizen Services Permanent Secretariat, over 10,000 Kenyans apply for ID cards each day.
However, since the court verdict on Maisha Namba rollout, there is said to now be a national ID card issuance crisis and applicants have been unable to claim the cards which were applied for.
An Interior Ministry official confirmed that the backlog situation was caused by an issue with printing ID cards due to the system being configured only for the Maisha Card.
An investigative report by Nation highlighted the effect the backlog has had on Kenyan nationals who revealed that without an ID card, they cannot access important government or private sector services.
The report also noted that there are more than 600,000 ID card applications which have not been attended to since the court injunction.
The Court has yet to update on a judgment date for Maisha Namba.
