Low registration of new born children in Siaya County may affect the allocation of resources to the region, County Commissioner Michael ole Tialal has said.
Tialal lamented that the registration of newly born children in the county stands at 50 per cent, leaving out most children whose data is not captured hence could not be planned for by the government.
Speaking at a hotel in Siaya town during celebrations to mark the African Statistics Day, ole Tialal challenged the locals to always respond positively whenever data was required as this is what determines the resources allocated to the regions.
He said that whereas the people of Siaya were adamant to have their children captured in government records, people from other regions were willingly doing so hence attracting more resources.
“Help the country get accurate data so that the government allocates resources equitably,” said the commissioner adding that locals should not be complaining of skewed allocation of resources when they refuse to give data whenever called to do so.
Ole Tialal called on the residents to ensure that their children were registered immediately after birth to avoid incidents where resources will be stretched as the government targeted just half of the population whose data was captured.
County statistics officer, Maureen Akinyi Odhiambo called for cooperation between relevant stakeholders to enable her office get accurate data.
“Citizens must be ready to give timely and accurate data whenever required to do so,” she said.
By Philip Onyango
