Detectives have smashed a sophisticated criminal network that was illegally issuing some of Kenya’s most sensitive identification documents, arresting 26 civil servants, middlemen and financiers in a dramatic two-day sting.
The Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) said the syndicate included staff from the National Registration Bureau and Immigration Department, local chiefs, and private brokers who sold genuine national ID cards, passports, birth certificates and alien IDs to unverified individuals for cash.
In raids across several counties, officers recovered blank application forms, fingerprint kits, official rubber stamps, dozens of completed passports and birth certificates, and other restricted registration materials hidden in private homes.
The DCI described the discoveries as deeply alarming, warning that the racket had exposed Kenya to serious security risks by allowing undocumented people to acquire legal identity, open bank accounts, cross borders and access public services.
“Investigations uncovered a disturbing network of collusion where civil servants brazenly bypassed laid-down procedures, exploiting their positions to facilitate the illicit registration and issuance of sensitive documents,” the agency said in a statement posted on X on Sunday.
The 26 suspects, now in custody, face charges ranging from abuse of office and forgery to conspiracy to defeat justice. A multi-agency team is processing them ahead of court appearance on Monday, while detectives hunt additional accomplices still at large.
The operation follows months of intelligence gathering after reports of foreigners and ineligible Kenyans obtaining genuine documents within days instead of the official weeks-long vetting process.
Interior ministry sources say the crackdown is part of a wider push to restore public trust in the national registration system, which has repeatedly come under scrutiny for corruption and data breaches.
The DCI promised to continue the purge until every vulnerability is sealed, vowing that anyone found compromising Kenya’s identity infrastructure will face the full force of the law.
