Taita Taveta Senator Jones Mwaruma has proposed a change of the Registration of Persons Act to allow easy acquisition of identity cards for foreign women married in Kenya.
He said the current law has made it difficult to have IDs for women of Tanzania origin who live in the border town of Taveta and are married to Kenyans.
Speaking during a meeting at Taveta on Wednesday, Mwaruma said he is preparing amendments to the Act to align it with the Marriage Act 2014.
“The law should be made simpler to accommodate women who are traditionally married to Kenyans and have not acquired marriage certificates,” he said.
In the amendments, Mwaruma proposes that an affidavit or a letter from the chief be used for the registration of persons office as proof of marriage to issue identity cards.
“These are people known to the local administrators but they have been denied the much-needed documents since they cannot prove their marriage to Kenyans,” he said.
He urged the residents to elect him for another term to push for the change of the law and enable the acquisition of IDs for women.
“We processed IDs for Tanzania women who had marriage certificates. In the next phase we will push for those who are married but do not have the marriage certificate,” Mwaruma said.
He said the Ministry of Interior should formulate a way of assisting the women to acquire IDs without further humiliation citing it as a violation of their rights.
An administrator who sought anonymity said there are more Tanzania women married to Kenyans at Kitobo and Mahoo in Taveta.
“There are many residents who do not have marriage certificates thus risking their chances of getting government services, there are more than 1,100 in both areas,” the administrator said.
Aziza Alfa, 48, from Tanzania, said they have been unable to access most of the government services including the National Hospital Insurance Fund for lack of identification documents.
She said the women rely on their spouses’ IDs to access loans and other financial services.
“We are facing challenges due to a lack of documents. Some of us have been married here for more than 35 years and we still do not have IDs,” Alfa said.
She said they are harassed by authorities at the border post for lack of proper documents.
The amendment, she said, will relieve the women who are mostly farmers.
Edited by Kiilu Damaris
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