Elgeyo Marakwet County Woman representative Caroline Ngelechei has raised concerns over the uneven distribution of civil registration and national identity card officers across the country, warning that the shortage of personnel in remote areas is undermining efforts to ensure all Kenyans access essential government services.
Speaking during a meeting between the Departmental Committee on Administration and Internal Security and the State Department for Immigration and Citizen Services at Parliament Buildings, Ngelechei questioned why many officers were concentrated in urban centres while rural communities struggled with inadequate staffing.
She said oversight visits by the committee to Bungoma, Busia and other counties had exposed glaring disparities in the deployment of officers responsible for registering births and deaths and issuing national identity cards.
The MP cited Elgeyo Marakwet County, where Keiyo North Sub-County has about 15 officers, while neighbouring Keiyo Valley has only one. Other sub-counties have between two and six officers.
She questioned the rationale behind the disparities, particularly because areas with significantly fewer officers recorded almost similar monthly outputs to those with larger workforces.
“In Keiyo Valley, the farthest sub-county, there is only one officer, and I am told he is even a clerk and not a civil registration officer. Yet when we compare the production at the end of the month, the one or two officers produce almost the same numbers as the 15 officers in other areas,” she said.
Ngelechei also questioned the concentration of personnel at the National Registration Bureau, saying the committee had been informed that about 37 officers were based in Nairobi despite limited office space and sitting capacity.
She argued that the deployment pattern pointed to poor utilisation of public resources, with some officers potentially underutilised in urban offices while those serving remote communities were overwhelmed by demand.
The MP further accused the department of failing to enforce staff deployment decisions, claiming that some officers posted to rural stations quickly found their way back to headquarters.
“When we ask for follow-up, we are told that the people in charge of staff distribution are domiciled in Nairobi. County officers tell us that when officers are posted to the villages, they come back the following day with letters directing them to report to headquarters,” she told the committee.
She called for the decentralisation of human resource management to give county officials greater authority over staff deployment and ensure officers remain in stations where their services are most needed.
Ngelechei said achieving universal civil registration and ensuring every eligible Kenyan obtained an identity card would require a fairer distribution of personnel, particularly in hard-to-reach areas.
“If you want to achieve full registration, you are wasting a lot of human resources by having people lying idle in towns while those in the villages are overwhelmed. Please take this up and ensure officers are distributed fairly,” she said.
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