The government is moving towards scrapping birth certificate fees as it introduces a digital registration system that will assign children unique personal identifiers (UPI) from birth.
Principal Secretary for Immigration and Citizen Services Belio Kipsang told MPs that the govrnment is finalising plans to waive all charges associated with the issuance of birth and death certificates in a Gazette notice that “will be published in due course”.
“Once the technical work that is ongoing is finalised, we would want to ensure that within the next 30 days, this integration has been done, so that we can migrate fully to the UPI,” Dr Kipsang told the National Assembly Committee on Administration and Internal Security.
Currently, a standard birth certificate attracts a Sh200 fee, late registration Sh500 and name corrections Sh1,000, on top of the charges by e-Citizen.
Dr Kipsang did not disclose how much it will cost the government to roll out the new tech-driven UPI system, but indicated that the document will have security features of its own.
The Births and Deaths Registration Act provides the legal framework for compulsory birth registration, with specific procedural timelines and fees enforced through the Births and Deaths Registration Rules.
Dr Kipsang told the committee chaired by Narok West MP Gabriel Tongoyo that the new system, which will be integrated with the Ministry of Health’s Hospital Management Information System, will see children born in hospitals registered electronically, saving parents lengthy journeys to civil registration offices.
The PS revealed that technical teams from the ministries of Interior and Health are already working to complete the integration within the next 30 days, paving the way for the nationwide rollout of electronic birth notification and the issuance of the UPIs.
The government is leveraging the digital system to eliminate the need for physical birth notification forms in hospitals and make it easier for parents to obtain their children’s registration documents without undue delays.
Dr Kipsang revealed that the government has already piloted electronic birth notifications in Nairobi City County and Bomet County, which hosted this year’s International Identity Day celebrations.
A parent displays a newly issued birth certificate. FILE PHOTO | NATION MEDIA GROUP
The system will be integrated with more than 7,500 public hospitals across the country. Private hospitals empanelled by the Social Health Authority will also be brought on board.
“This will make it possible for every other hospital to issue electronic notifications and, therefore, the UPI,” said the PS.
Parents will be able to download and print birth certificates from anywhere, without necessarily visiting registration offices.
“The same way we download the PIN card or PIN number from the Kenya Revenue Authority, we will also be able to print a birth certificate anywhere,” the PS said.
Gilgil MP Martha Wangari had expressed concerns over the rising cost and difficulties associated with obtaining birth certificates, particularly for families in rural areas.
Ms Wangari told the committee that the cost of acquiring the documents had become a burden, especially for parents who needed them for school registration and other essential services.
The MP said some errors occurred during manual registration and were not necessarily the fault of parents, yet families were forced to pay high fees to have them corrected.
“I feel that sometimes it is not even a problem for the parent because of the manual writing of the names. Sometimes you miss a letter, and you have to change it to get the right spelling,” said Ms Wangari.
She wondered whether the public was “adequately consulted before the new charges were introduced”, warning that the fees are making it difficult for low-income families to obtain the crucial document.
She noted that the challenge was particularly serious in remote areas where residents sometimes travelled long distances to access civil registration services.
The legislators challenged the government to allocate civil registration services adequate resources due to its central role in providing citizens with identity documents.
Under the new digital system, a child’s UPI would remain the basis of their identity as they grow, switching to a national identity (ID) number when they attain the age of18 years. The individual would only need to provide biometric information when applying for an identity card.
Dr Kipsang said the system would also strengthen the management of the national population register by ensuring that the records of deceased persons are updated immediately after a death is registered.
It will also help to prevent identity fraud, where people continue using deceased persons’ identification documents. According to the PS, once a death is registered, the individual’s record would be removed from active identification systems, including those used by banks, insurance companies and other institutions for electronic know-your-customer checks.
However, city lawyer David Ochami warned that nothing would change without first amending the Births and Deaths Registration Act and its attendant regulations. He dismissed Dr Kipsang’s announcement as “another empty promise engineered to win short-term public approval without any foundational planning”.
