More than half a million Kenyans have yet to collect their processed National Identity Cards, forcing the government to begin a nationwide exercise to track down the applicants and hand over the documents. The campaign will bring together county governments, local administrators and digital systems as the State moves to clear one of the country's biggest ID backlogs.
The exercise was announced by Interior Principal Secretary Raymond Omollo during a meeting with Mombasa Governor Abdulswamad Nassir on Wednesday. Their discussions focused on the rising number of government documents that remain uncollected, with national identity cards accounting for the largest share.
Omollo said the Ministry of Interior has teamed up with county administrations to identify residents whose identity cards have already been processed but are still lying at registration centres.
"The Ministry, in partnership with the county administration, is tracing residents whose National Identity Cards have been processed but remain uncollected," he said.
The nationwide exercise targets more than 520,000 identity cards that have not been picked up by applicants despite being ready for collection. The government says the effort is aimed at ensuring every processed document reaches its owner while easing pressure on registration offices.
The backlog comes after the government waived application fees in May 2025, leading to a surge in new registrations. Huduma Kenya says the waiver attracted about 1.7 million applications for national identity cards across the country.
Government records show Nairobi has the highest number of uncollected IDs at 71,060. Kiambu follows with 40,141, while Nakuru has 28,229. Meru has 24,893, Mombasa 23,000 and Busia 20,330.
To improve the collection process, the government plans to combine technology with existing administrative structures at the grassroots. The approach is expected to speed up collection while preventing a similar build-up of unclaimed documents in future.
Applicants will receive automated notifications once their identity cards are ready for collection. The government also plans to use digital platforms such as eCitizen to allow citizens to check the progress of their applications online.
Officials will also rely on the Integrated Population Registration System (IPRS) to confirm applicants' details by matching information across government records. This is expected to make it easier to trace people who have changed their residence or are no longer reachable through the contacts they initially provided.
Where digital methods fail, chiefs, assistant chiefs, village elders and mobile outreach teams will step in to locate affected residents and notify them that their identity cards are ready for collection.
The Interior Ministry says the exercise is meant to improve public service by ensuring processed national identity cards are collected while reducing the growing number of documents that remain at registration centres across the country.