The Lower Eastern Times Opening The Third Eye
Related Articles
For the first time in years, the Ministry of Education has embarked on an intensive campaign to register secondary school students for national identity cards.
Click here to join our WhatsApp Channel
In a directive issued by Principal Secretary for Basic Education, Julius Bitok, Regional and County Directors of Education have been instructed to inform secondary school principals to support and facilitate the exercise.
The registration will take place during the current second term—running from May to August 2025—and is expected to reach thousands of eligible students nationwide.
Led by the State Department for Immigration and Citizen Services through the National Registration Bureau, the initiative seeks to ensure that students eligible for national IDs receive them before completing secondary school.
“The aim is to have students who have turned 18 registered for IDs while still in school, so they can smoothly transition to tertiary education, employment, or access financial support such as HELB loans,” reads a circular dated May 29.
To ease the process, school principals or their deputies will act as identification agents on behalf of the students, replacing the usual role played by National Government Administration Officers (NGAOs), who typically handle citizen verification during ID issuance.
Regional and county education officials have been tasked with working closely with County and Deputy County Registration Officers to ensure the smooth rollout of the exercise across all secondary schools.
The government hopes the campaign will help minimize delays experienced by school leavers in accessing higher education and employment due to the lack of identification documents.
The timing of the drive also coincides with a political season where the youth are increasingly being targeted ahead of the 2027 general elections, with newly registered ID holders expected to become eligible voters.
