Fafi MP Salah Yakub on Saturday asked the government to decentralise civil registration for easy registration of persons.
In Garissa county, only Ijara and Balambala have civil registration offices while Lagdera, Dadaab and Fafi depend on the Garissa office.
The MP said the current arrangement had not only inconvenienced residents but also contributed to a backlog and delays in the issuance of the certificate.
The MP at the same time appealed for a grace period of about six months for the digitisation of birth and death registration citing several challenges in the region.
He said a majority of school-going children in the area don't have birth certificates and are not captured in the Nemis system which translates to reduced capitation in schools over low registration.
He was speaking at Warable, Nanigi ward during the distribution of birth certificates to children.
The exercise saw a total of 450 birth certificates issued as a result of three-day mobile registration conducted by civil registration and Haki Na Sheria, a local human rights organisation in Garissa.
He said the directive by Interior CS Kithue Kindiki that border counties will get their IDs within 21 days has not yet been realised because of bureaucracies like vetting and serious scrutiny of applicants.
“The ID processing takes more than a year for residents of frontier counties, we appeal to the CS to look into this to ensure the issuance of ID is timely and seamless,” he said.
“In fact, I wonder why a person applying for an ID card has to be subjected to such a rigorous exercise when you already have a birth certificate which in my honest opinion is enough to prove of one's nationality."
The MP asked for a grace period for the digitisation of the birth certificate saying the region is faced with a serious internet connection.
“The few civil registration offices in the subcounties don't have an internet connection to kick start this, we urge the ministry to give us a grace period of at least six months,” he said.
He said the government should consider the prevailing challenges the region is facing and consider having offline registration for specific areas.
Nanigi ward representative Abdullahi Ibrahim said a majority of the elderly don't have a birth certificate, an important document in the acquisition of travel passports.
“What this means is that this group of people, however, much they want to fulfil the one-lifetime religious pillar among the Muslims— going to Mecca for Hajj," he said.
"They cannot, I hope his excellency the president will look into this matter so that our people don’t feel like the government is not concerned with their predicaments."
