Good Morning Millenial Readers, if you have ever lost your ID then you do know that  the process as well as the waiting can be tedious. But if you have never lost your ID count yourself lucky. On today’s read I’m going to take you through the process and see if we can find solutions.

If you have lost your ID, visit the nearest huduma centre and report that you want to replace your lost ID. Within the premises there is a police post where you can obtain an abstract which you can use to replace your ID Card. 

Replacing an ID was initially free, but in 2018 the Government, under the Ministry of Interior, headed by Matiangi,introduced a fee of 100shs in a move to boost the government’s non tax revenue flow. It takes about 2 weeks to a month for the replacement. 

It is important that once you lose your ID card, visit the nearest police station and report your lost ID Card where they will issue you with an abstract which is free of charge. This is because an ID is not just a possession of identity but it is quite valuable.

“There’s this day I realised that I had a loan from Branch , which I never procured, but because I had lost my ID ,someone used it to take a loan”. A conversation I had with one of my friends. It honestly astonished me how that was possible. 

It got me curious wanting more information so I dug deep, “Yes, it is possible for someone else to use a lost ID to register a new line, then use the new line to obtain a loan, they just need your ID number.” He was also shocked when it happened to him.

In search of solutions and questioning who is to blame for this kind of system failures, can you imagine how many people out there have had the same experience? This is not only a Branch problem; it cuts across all apps that provide soft loans. 

Tracking of lost IDs would be a big plus for us as a country. I also think we need better identification means to acquire soft loans. As much as personal details are important, why not introduce fingerprint verification to acquire loans. 

In our research we discovered that there is an app that can track lost IDs, here is a link: 

https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/amp/wednesday-life/article/2000135242/an-app-to-find-your-lost-id 

This is quite interesting. We have an app that can solve a bunch of problems, but the fact that Kenyans don’t know about it is simply because the government and the society has not owned the app. Most times we lose IDs in an Mpesa shop close to where we live or in a bus that is on our residential route. This app would save us time, resources and most of all cost.

Repeatedly we have heard of incidents where lost ID cards are found in major crime scenes. Some people who have failed to report that their IDs went missing immediately it got lost,have gotten into huge trouble. Whereas, some have been able to escape trouble simply because they reported as soon as they realized that they had lost their IDs. This action protected them from a lot of harm.

Fortunately, my friend didn’t pay the loan as they tracked it down, cleared his name and went further on to block that number. 

My take would be let’s work towards how to bridge this gap between the consumers and unlawful consumers. We need to come up with long lasting solutions from being able to track lost IDs, sim card registrations, to being responsible and reporting crimes. Food for thought for all institutions involved, why not introduce fingerprint verification? 

MaryMwas ♥️♥️♥️