22/07/2024
When the 1st generation of Kenyan IDs was launched in 1980, the then Kenyan President, Daniel Moi, was issued ID number 1, clearly affirming him as citizen number 1.
The vice-president at the time, Mwai Kibaki, was issued ID number 2 while Kenya’s 2nd longest-serving Attorney General to date, Charles Njonjo, was issued ID number 3.
ID number 4 went to Kenya’s longest-serving Head of Civil Service to date, Geoffrey Kariithi, while number 5 went to a then Permanent Secretary and founder of Braeburn Group of Schools, Aaron Kandie.
There are your first 5 Kenyans to walk on planet Earth 😅
Despite the controversy around how those numbers were issued, it was still a significant milestone for the country. It also marked the first time it became a requirement for women to also be issued with registration documents (15+ years after independence).
Prior to this, the colonial government had enacted the widely despised 'Native Registration Ordinance' in 1915 to control the recruitment of African males into colonial labour (you probably know it as the ‘Kipande System’).
The ordinance contained a registration certificate, the holder’s fingerprint, tribe, strengths + weaknesses and comments from his employer on his competence (imagine having a competence section on your ID written by your boss 😭).
These registration papers were kept in metallic copper containers attached to a chain worn around the neck like a dog collar, giving them the infamous ‘Kipande’ name.
It was mandatory for all adult males aged 16 and above to be registered. This also empowered the police to stop a native anywhere and demand to be shown the document. The Kipande was like a badge of slavery and sparked bitter protests among native people at the time.
The Kipande System was replaced 32 years later by an identity booklet called a Passbook, with just the holder's fingerprints (no portrait/picture yet — club bouncers in 1947 were having a really hard time 😅).
Although the Passbook sought to remove discrimination based on race, it made no attempt to remove gender-based discrimination. The trend continued even after independence until 1978 when an amendment was finally made to include the registration of women aged 16 years and above. A further amendment was made in 1980 to raise the age of registration from 16 to 18 years.
The 2nd generation of Kenyan IDs (post-independence) was launched in 1995. This introduced the new credit-card sized IDs we all use today replacing the larger paper document used from 1980.
Progressive iterations have still been made since then, from the laminated paper cards to the plastic cards we now have...
I hope you enjoyed that random history story on Kenyan IDs, it just happens to be part of the work we do at Talent.
Run background checks, verify IDs and a number of other government-issued documents in Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana and South Africa on https://verify.jobzy.africa 😁
If you're just slightly interested, watch how it all works here: https://youtu.be/MetA8F3Sy4Q 😊
