More than 1,760 birth certificates are lying uncollected at the Huduma centre in Narok town.
The Officer in charge of Huduma Centre in Narok county, Ms. Zam Aden is now calling on the residents of Narok to come and pick their birth certificates which have been lying at the Huduma Centre in Narok town since 2017.
Speaking to the press on Monday, Ms. Aden said that 1762 birth certificates lying at the huduma centre might have been abandoned by the applicants who might have moved to other places in the country or some unscrupulous individuals who might have used other documents to apply for the birth certificate a second time somewhere else and ended up abandoning the first application at the huduma centre.
“Some people apply for these documents in one place and because they are in a hurry, move to another place and apply again but some move out and relocate to another place and decide to try their luck there,” She said.
Ms. Aden also said that the Huduma Kenya programme is in the process to launch the end to end process at huduma centre that will see applicants get their birth certificates immediately after applying.
Narok County issued 35,000 birth certificates during the period of the launch of the Rapid Results Initiative (RRI) programme in June this year.
The Narok County Civil Registrar, Ken Nyamweya had earlier said during the RRI programme, Narok County received 45,074 new applications for birth certificates which has left a backlog of 10,000 birth certificates.
Before the RRI programme, Narok County was facing a backlog of 9,000 birth certificates pending from 2018 but since the start of the programme that ended on August 1, 2019, the County has however managed to process and issue most of these birth certificates
The major issue facing the issuance of birth certificates in Narok is that majority of the residents do not come to register their children in the required period of three months after birth due to illiteracy levels and the social-cultural practices such as nomadism and the fact that most women give birth at home.
Printing of birth certificates booklets from the government printer has also been delaying which contributes to backlogs. The department also lacks enough staff to help speed up the process.
Some Kenyans cannot easily access government services due to lack of birth certificates and some children have not been registered on National Education Management Information System (Nemis) because they do not have birth certificates.
This makes it difficult for them to be registered for national examinations too and hinders the government from getting the exact number of children in schools for policy formulation and funding.
Students require birth certificates for registration under Nemis, which is the digital registration of all students who are given a unique identification code that can be used to track their progress at all levels of education.
By Mabel Keya-Shikuku/Salim Maleto
