West Pokot County on Saturday launched a 30-day rapid results initiative to clear the backlog in the issuance of birth and death certificates in the county.
This follows the launch of the RRI nationally by the ministry of Interior and Coordination of Government Affairs Cabinet Secretary Dr. Fred Matiang’i in Kajiado on Thursday last week.
In the event at Makutano Town, led by West Pokot Deputy County Commissioner Abdulahi Khalif attended by chiefs and their assistants from all the five sub counties in the region, the administrators were asked to leave nothing to chance in the clearance of all unregistered births.
“We also have a large number of uncollected birth certificates totaling 56, 000 in the county and it is the responsibility of each of us to do their part within this 30 days initiative,” said Khalif.
The deputy county commissioner sent a warning to the chiefs and their assistants including village elders against engaging in illegal activities like taking bribes from the locals during the exercise.
“We have received a lot of complaints on chiefs taking money from applicants and we are looking into them. I do not want the axe to fall on some of us so just desist from that behavior,” warned Khalif.
The event held at Huduma Centre West Pokot branch brought together stakeholders from the county government, registrar of births and deaths and the Huduma Kenya.
Huduma centre officials urged residents to acquire services from the newly constructed facility and also to register for the government’s affordable housing initiative where a total of 15,000 residents from each county are targeted.
The County government chief officer for Preventive and Promotive Health services Mr. Peter Adoki who attended the event also launched a sanitation initiative to build toilets in the region.
According to the chief officer, toilet coverage in Pokot North stands at a low of 1 percent and 2.5 percent in Pokot South which he said exposes the residents to health infections like Brucellosis, typhoid and amoeba.
Khalif further warned Chiefs and assistant chiefs against receiving money for the census job applications.
By John Saina/Enock Toroitich
