The government’s announcement of a six-month fee waiver for replacing lost IDs and updating personal details has been met with a mix of relief and a healthy dose of public irony. The temporary suspension of fees, which previously stood at up to Ksh. 1,000, is certainly a welcome relief for the public.
However, many citizens can’t help but point out the elephant in the room: ID replacement was historically free or involved only a minimal administrative charge (e.g. Ksh 100) before the current administration introduced the higher fees.
The irony lies in the speed of the policy shift. In late 2023, the government generated public outcry by proposing a sharp increase in fees, with ID replacement costs initially proposed to hit Ksh. 2,000, before settling at Ksh. 1,000 following public resistance.
The previous justification for the fee hike was to “eradicate the culture of losing and replacing” documents, a move that framed the cost as a penalty for carelessness.
Now, just months after implementing the controversial fees, the government is reversing course, citing President Ruto’s directive to ensure accessibility and address financial constraints that have locked many Kenyans out of essential services like voter registration.
The current waiver, while beneficial, effectively creates a temporary return to the previous, cheaper status quo. The sequence of events is seen by some critics as a bizarre, self-inflicted cycle:
- Phase 1 (Previous Administration/Status Quo): ID replacement is free or near-free.
- Phase 2 (Current Administration): A high fee is introduced to discourage ‘carelessness’ and raise revenue.
- Phase 3 (The Waiver): The high fee is ‘paused’ because it is now recognized as a barrier preventing citizens from accessing their fundamental rights.
The move essentially means the government temporarily rectified a problem it created, prompting the question: if the fees were a barrier to essential civic participation like voter registration, why were they introduced so recently and at such a high rate in the first place?
The public is now encouraged to rush and ‘take advantage’ of a service window that, in essence, simply restores a basic administrative policy that had been available to them for decades.