The nightmare that is Kenya’s administrative bureaucracy

[Tallrays]

Woe unto you if you lose an official document in Kenya and have to replace it!

“It has been a hell of two weeks for my family and I as we have been trying to acquire travel documents,” lamented Mrs Hadija Salim, a woman from North Eastern part of Kenya, currently residing in Kisii. We were seated on a narrow uncomfortable bench at the Kisii Police Station, patiently waiting for our turn to have our cases recorded at the Occurrence Book or the OB-Book as it is commonly referred to.

Replacing an official document in Kenya is a long and tedious process. First you have to make a report at the local police station in the area where you lost them. An officer should give you an OB number, which you use to get a police abstract and an affidavit from a notary of public or commissioner for oaths, at a fee. Only then will you be able to make a new application.

I was at the police station to report my lost passport while Mrs Salim had lost all her academic certificates, birth certificate, bank documents, national identification card and her passport. They were in a briefcase that got lost on her way to Kisii from Nairobi. This meant Mrs Salim could not withdraw money, apply for a job or even travel. She had had several nasty encounters with the authorities because of her ethnicity. Mrs Salim is from the North Eastern Province and has cu****ic features. The reason of her bad encounters with the authorities is because of an influx of illegal immigrants in the country from Somalia, who are cu****ic. Incidentally, the system cannot prove Mrs Salim is Kenyan, nor that she actually exists.

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