As the process of registering Dar es Salaam residents for the national identity cards ends today, The Citizen has established that the number of people who have been registered at some centres is less than the number of those recorded during the house-to-house registration.
A spot check conducted by this newspaper in various areas has established that due to inadequate education, many residents who were registered during the house-to-house registration ignored to go to the registration centres, a situation that can make it incomplete.
According to the one of the clerks at Mbuyuni Ward at the Mwananyamala area in Kinondoni District, Mr Michael Ambari, the number of people who came for registration at his centre, was not equal to the number of people they registered during the house-to-house registration.
He said the Mbuyuni area was estimated to have more than 1,000 houses and 60,000 residents, but the number of people who came at his centre for registration was smaller than the number of the residents in the ward.
“Although some people turned up for registration, many of them haven’t and are unaware of the process. So they have taken the matter lightly. There is a possibility that many of Dar residents won’t be registered because the deadine is this Monday,” he said.
He pointed out that due to the low level of awareness on how to fill registration forms, they were forced to refuse to give the forms to the residents to record themselves as was directed by National Identity Authority (NIDA).
However, in many parts of the city where The Citizen conducted its survey, observed that there were some registration centres that received large numbers of people and there were queues waiting to be registred, however, clerks at the centres said they managed to register a large number of people.
Mr Emeri Sanga a ward leader at Kwa Alimaua in Tandale, said they are about to register all residents of the area, but he could not provide actual figure of people living at his area and total number of those registered.
He said despite some challenges facing the exercise, but he hopes that he will manage to register all people living at his area.
“We have manage to register many people from this area and we hopes that by the time the exercise ends, all people from Kwa Alimau Street will be registered,” said Mr Sanga
For his part, Mr Kashinje Lwahumbiza, a resident from Kwa Alimaua appealed to the government to extend the registration exercise as many people were not registered during the house to house registration.
“If the government will extend the time and educated the people about the importance of national identity cards many people could not be documented for lack of awareness,” he said.
He pointed out that due to the low level of awareness on how to fill registration forms, they were forced to refuse to give the forms to the residents to record themselves as was directed by National Identity Authority (NIDA).
However, in many parts of the city where The Citizen conducted its survey, observed that there were some registration centres that received large numbers of people and there were queues waiting to be registred, however, clerks at the centres said they managed to register a large number of people.
Mr Emeri Sanga a ward leader at Kwa Alimaua in Tandale, said they are about to register all residents of the area, but he could not provide actual figure of people living at his area and total number of those registered.
He said despite some challenges facing the exercise, but he hopes that he will manage to register all people living at his area.
“We have manage to register many people from this area and we hopes that by the time the exercise ends, all people from Kwa Alimau Street will be registered,” said Mr Sanga
For his part, Mr Kashinje Lwahumbiza, a resident from Kwa Alimaua appealed to the government to extend the registration exercise as many people were not registered during the house to house registration.
“If the government will extend the time and educated the people about the importance of national identity cards many people could not be documented for lack of awareness,” he said.
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