Africa-Press – Tanzania. RESIDENTS of Karagwe District in Kagera Region have complained to the government that they face several challenges as a result of not securing national identity cards.
During a meeting with the Karagwe Member of Parliament, Mr Innocent Bashungwa, who is also the Minister for Information, Culture, Arts and Sports, the residents said the delay was making some dishonest and corrupt officers from the National Identification Authorities (NIDA) to solicit bribes from them.
One of the residents, who was only identified as Mzee Byekwaso from Kanoni Ward told the minister that some officers have turned the exercise as a project to get extra money.
“Some officers are forcing us to give out money in the name of facilitating the process of obtaining National IDs numbers.
“It takes a long time to register one…we spend almost five days at Rwambaizi and even when they bring the IDs, most of us are not appearing in the list,” said Mr Byekwaso.
Another resident from Nyakasimbi Ward, identified only as Ms Edina, said despite registering in the past, the IDs have not been issued except numbers, which leads to blocking their telephone lines.
“Most of us can no longer communicate with our relatives and friends …our lines have been shut down, because we could not complete the biometric registration of SIM Cards exercise as required by the law,” she complained.
In reaction, the minister asked NIDA Director General to respond to the allegations.
