- She notes that there are only 158 birth and death registration offices across the country.
- Committee chair Ndindi Nyoro concurred that bottlenecks in the issuance of birth certificates have been slowing enrolment in schools.
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You will soon not need to travel outside your constituency to acquire birth and certificates if a Bill before the National Assembly sails through.
The Births and Deaths Registration (Amendment) Bill, 2023, sponsored by Gilgil MP Martha Wangari, seeks to have the certificates issued in all 290 constituencies.
She notes that there are only 158 birth and death registration offices across the country.
Appearing before the Budget and Appropriations Committee, Wangari regretted that Kenyans in certain parts of the country incur a lot of expenses to acquire the crucial documents.
"If the Bill is passed as it is, we will have an additional 132 birth and death registration offices across the country which will mean services will be taken closer to the people," she said.
Committee chair Ndindi Nyoro concurred that bottlenecks in the issuance of birth certificates have been slowing enrolment in schools.
"Some learners delay reporting to school because of the unavailability of the crucial documents," he said.
Learners are typically registered on the National Education Management Information System (NEMIS) using their birth certificate number as a unique identifier.
NEMIS is an online portal for managing and automating education data and other related administrative functions.
The main objective of the NEMIS portal is to help the Ministry of Education gather accurate and real-time information on learners and learning institutions.
Wangari further said the new offices will not have huge financial implications for taxpayers as each office will only have a registrar, deputy registrar and a clerk.
She estimated that the government would incur an expenditure of Sh219 million in the first year of establishing the offices.
"Assistant commissioners will house the new offices," she explained.
Wangari cited Nakuru County, which she said has four centres for registration of births and deaths.
"These four offices are serving over 2 million inhabitants. In Busia County, there are only three stations; one in Funyula, one in Teso and one in Busia town," she noted.
Wangari said travelling long distances to acquire the documents breeds corruption.
"Officials have been demanding money to facilitate quick issuance of the certificates," she stated.