An investigation by KTN News has exposed a major security breach involving the illegal sale of Kenyan national identity cards, birth certificates, and passports to foreign nationals, with particular focus on individuals from Somalia.
The report implicates an organized network of brokers and corrupt government officials, placing intense pressure on Immigration Director General Evelyn Cheluget and Principal Secretary Belio Kipsang regarding the integrity of the nation’s citizenship registration systems.
The detailed television broadcast revealed that foreigners are paying as little as fifteen thousand Kenyan shillings to bypass legal processes.
These individuals are obtaining valid identification documents through an underground market operating right inside state registration centers.
The operation relies on falsifying critical information to beat official biometric and tracking systems. Brokers and rogue officers intentionally alter birth dates and birthplaces to disguise the true origins of the applicants.
In addition to changing data, the network uses a method where local Kenyan citizens rent out their own identity cards for a fee.
The foreign buyers can then falsely claim these citizens as their biological parents to satisfy registration requirements. This systematic evasion allows non-citizens, including truck drivers and individuals from Mogadishu, to claim Kenyan citizenship overnight without any genuine ties to the country.
This security failure has raised serious concern among the public and within security agencies.
Because the national identity card serves as the primary document for voter registration, the massive distribution of fake IDs threatens to manipulate future elections by introducing illegitimate voters onto the official registers.
Security experts and political figures have warned that this practice effectively erases Kenya’s national borders, making it easier for criminals and global syndicates to use Kenyan documents to travel undetected to Europe and America.
Despite the gravity of these discoveries, the leadership at the Ministry of Interior and the Directorate of Immigration Services has faced sharp criticism for its quiet stance.
Director General Evelyn Cheluget, a long-serving official in charge of border management and citizenship, is currently at the center of the storm as investigators demand a full audit of all documents issued under her watch. Similarly,
Principal Secretary Belio Kipsang faces heavy questioning regarding why early security warnings from state agencies were allegedly ignored when changes were made to the border vetting procedures.
Although recent police operations in areas like Eastleigh have led to twenty-six arrests, including local chiefs and brokers found with government stamps and fingerprint kits in their private homes, citizens continue to demand deep institutional accountability from top leadership.
If the leadership does not secure the registration database immediately, Kenya faces the real threat of having its passports degraded internationally, stripping value from the identity of true citizens.
