The government will in March this year launch a Unique Personal Identifier (UPI) that will capture and register all new born babies at birth and deaths that occur in the country.
The Principal Secretary for Immigration and Citizen Services Amb. Julius Bittok said the UPI that will be uploaded in the eCitizen portal will give all the new born babies a unique personal number that will be used in schools and colleges.
PS Bittok said the special number will also be used as an identification card, PIN number, National Health Insurance Fund, and Kenya Revenue Authority, as well as identify the individuals in life and in death.
Amb. Bittok said the introduction of the unique identifier will bring to an end the national census exercise as the new technology will be able to provide accurate data on the country’s population.
“The Kenya Kwanza government has put the citizenry in the core, by putting the digital transformation first, this will change many things in our country,” he said, adding that with the technological revolution, Kenya cannot be left behind as what drives the economy and a nation is technology.
The PS was speaking on Wednesday during the opening of a training workshop on the rollout of the Unique Personal Identifier for all Regional and County Birth and Death Registration Officers held at the Kenya School of Government, Kabete.
Amb. Bittok stated that currently the number of births that were being registered were at 86 percent while that of deaths was at 60 percent, noting that with the digitization the number of both is expected to increase with at least 90 percent.
He expressed confidence that UPI model that was borrowed from Estonia will eliminate vetting and discrimination of registration at the border counties, as well as allow every Kenyan to get services from the eCitizen Portal.
“UPI will confirm during registration whether a child is a Kenyan when the information details of the parents is populated at the eCitizen portal. The UPI number can be decoded to show if the child is a boy or girl when they are born,” said the PS.
The PS who called upon the registration officers to ensure that they capture all the birth and deaths in their areas of jurisdiction and said that the government has already made arrangements with hospitals on how to record the same.
He singled out accuracy, efficiency and tightening of loose ends in revenue collection that comes with manual system as some of the benefits that will be derived from the UPI system.
The PS said, “The digital transformation will also capture monies and revenues paid to the government.”
Bittok announced that the government has partnered with Web Master, a Kenyan private company to record the services in the eCitizen platform.
The government’s plan is to have all the 5000 government services uploaded on the eCitizen platform by 30th June this year.
By Bernadette Khaduli
