Nairobi — Kenyans will start getting third-generation identity cards starting January 2010, a year behind the original schedule set out by the Immigration and Registration of Persons ministry.

Presentations made before the departmental committee on national security and administration by a team from the Immigration ministry led by minister Otieno Kajwang' indicate the new cards will be ready by January.

The committee's report on the ministry's estimate was tabled in Parliament last week and will be debated by Parliament before its recommendations are adopted.

According to the minutes tabled in the House, a foreign company has been contracted to produce the cards and also purchase the materials needed in their production. The contract for the current company expires at the end of this year and Sh320 million is needed for the production of the new cards.

The current company is however owed Sh619 million for the production of identity cards. Of this, Sh119 million is a debt carried forward from the previous financial year while Sh500 million is the cost for production of cards in year 2008/2009, according to the minutes.

According to the report, the full amount can only be paid once the company has fulfilled the terms of the contract and finished their work by December.

"The budgetary allocation for the last financial year was insufficient and the supplementary allocations in the same year were delayed thus the incurred debt had to be carried forward to this financial year," the committee was told.

The new identity cards will come equipped with a microchip containing the holder's details. It is expected that the new card's features will make it hard for counterfeiters who have been having a field day producing fake ones.

The current second-generation cards began to be produced in 1996 and replaced the first post-independence version, whose use was outlawed by the ministry in April this year.

In February, the minister told journalists at his office Kenyans could begin to be issued with the new third-generation identity cards in June. He had in November last year promised that the new cards would be out by the beginning of this year.

In February, he said the "long and complicated procurement process" had resulted in the delay in issuing the cards. He then said the ministry would in three weeks advertise for contractors to produce the cards. They will be the third design to be issued since Kenya became independent more than 45 years ago.

"We already have a budget in place for their production and if we start the procurement process in three weeks, we know it will be complete by mid this year," said Mr Kajwang' in February.

Last week, the Parliamentary team said Treasury should in future increase the ministry's allocation because most of its operations are security based. However, they added that its substantial collections from the issuance of visas and passports, Sh2.6 billion this year, mean it should not necessarily depend on Treasury for allocation.

The committee also recommended the allocation of funds in the next financial year to enable the ministry employ permanently some 1,700 temporary employees who have been in casual employment for too long.