The Civil Registration Service department which deals with the cataloging of births and deaths has enlisted at least 3897 fresh cases during a two-week mobile outreach exercise in Narok County.
The registration campaign sponsored by the World Bank saw Narok West Sub County record the highest number of 718, Narok Central 651, Narok South 523, Transmara South 498, Narok East 445, Transmara East 426, Narok North 326, while Trans Mara West Sub County recorded the lowest number at 300 new applicants.
The statistics were issued by County Director of Civil Registration Services Kennedy Nyamweya during a County Service Delivery meeting chaired by County Commissioner Isaac Masinde.
Nyamweya underscored the need to increase mobile outreaches pointing out that the county is vast which makes it very difficult for people to travel to apply for the document.
He said in the year 2022/2023, the department targeted to register 15, 674 new births but exceeded their expectation to 19,785 registrations, adding that the increased number was a result of mobile registration.
Nyamweya raised concern over ignorance among members of the public on the importance of registration where people do not report births or deaths occurring at home to assistant chiefs for the purpose of registration.
He added that alterations of documents by clients to suit their own intention like changing of year of birth and removal of father’s name were the major challenges the department faced.
The director noted yet another challenge regarding the parents’ details where a parent uses a different name on the clinic card from the name in her Identification Card.
He warned against presenting fake documents for the purpose of late registration and wanting to register events occurring outside the county saying this could attract stiff penalties.
“Most of the people visiting my office did not have any birth notification document or clinic cards forcing my officers to send them back to collect more verification documents from the chiefs,” he said.
“Most parents do not register their children immediately when they are born as the law requires. The law requires all events happening at home to be reported accordingly,” he said.
The director told the meeting that many people were burying their loved ones without burial permits which is a criminal offence that also posed a challenge during the issuance of death certificates.
In the current financial year, the department targeted to register about 1, 680 deaths and has so far registered 1, 309.
Commissioner Masinde said children born in prisons, hospitals, orphanages, barracks or quarantine stations should be reported by the officer in charge of such institutions.
He reiterated that it was a crime to bury any person without notifying the office of Civil Registration Service.
The meeting was held at the County Commissioner’s Conference hall and attended by all heads of department.
By Ann Salaton
