Co-operation from parents and guardians who have applied for birth certificates for their children in Kiambu County has contributed to the elimination of cartels in the issuance process.
The County Registrar of Births and Deaths in Kiambu County, Mrs. Jane Kariuki told KNA in her office on Tuesday that cases of cartels who have been frequenting the collection centre have been addressed to the root which she admitted was a total relief to the department.
The registrar revealed to KNA that there was now order at the offices and that applicants were no longer complaining of delayed service delivery and they were not being lured into engaging people who previously hovered round the office with an intention of extorting money from innocent members of the public for them to be assisted promptly.
KNA confirmed that the proper organization where the certificates had been arranged in an alphabetical order.
The certificates are then placed in different boxes in that all those whose names begun with letter A were placed in one box and the same case to other alphabets.
The applicants upon arrival at the offices presented their receipts and were directed accordingly to the boxes which held the specific documents and they proceeded to check.
Mrs. Kariuki said the idea of engaging the applicants to search for their children’s certificate had helped to cool down the tempers from impatient applicants who feared that some cartels had infiltrated the system and were as a result, making money from innocent applicants who needed the document in a hurry.
The system was also doing well to the office which has a serious shortage of staff as the only personnel to supervise the applicants were two. The registrar occasionally pops around the queues to check on the running of collection and is able to detect a stranger who appears to have been spotted several times without proper explanation.
The ingenuity of the registrar has helped her restore confidence in the public who are now co-operative and supportive as they can now testify that the issuance is smooth and on course as fairness is observed and as early as 12.30 o’clock, there are no people seeking to be served. In the evening, as early as 4.00p.m, there are no queues at the said office.
For a long time, cartels had been spotted hovering on the corridors of this office while extorting money from innocent applicants some who are ready to part with money so as to be served from the comfort of their homes or offices.
By Lydia Shiloya
