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{
    "id": 790698,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/790698/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 179,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. (Ms.) Wanjira",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 769,
        "legal_name": "Jane Agnes Wanjira Machira",
        "slug": "jane-agnes-wanjira-machira"
    },
    "content": "Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, I beg to move the following Motion: THAT, aware that every birth in Kenya must be registered by the Department of Civil Registration and documented through a birth certificate; further aware that subsequent registration of citizens and acquisition of documentation such as identity cards and passports, school admissions, registration of exams, and access to opportunities such as employment depends and relies on birth certificates; deeply concerned that the Department of Civil Registration Services has over time experienced backlogs in the issuance of birth certificates as a result of among other factors, inadequate personnel, unwillingness to embrace Information Communication and Technology (ICT), inadequate funding, and inadequate materials used in registration of persons; further deeply concerned that registration services are not easily accessible to majority of Kenyans owing to the few registration centres in place, this House urges the Government to consider establishing civil registration centres in every constituency and ensure full implementation of the Kenya Citizens and Foreign Nationals Management Service Act, 2011. At the outset, I want to confirm that the issue of birth certificates, however simple it looks and should be, has become a nightmare in every constituency and part of this country. Recently, Dr. Matiang’i, the former Cabinet Secretary (CS) launched what is known as the National Education Management Information System (NEMIS). This system is supposed to get a unique number for every pupil who joins class one. It will be able to capture their age, academic performance, their parents’ economic status and more importantly, help the Government in allocation of resources to schools. This system will also be linked to the integrated Population Registration System (PRS) that is run by the Government. It has been a nightmare and I know many Members can relate to it. Why? It is because the civil registration centres in this country are about 139, which is not even half the number of the constituencies we have in this country. To illustrate it, I will use my region. We, as a constituency, are supposed to go to Naivasha. If you go to Naivasha today, you will find very many people in that office. One day, I walked in there at about 8.30 a.m. and found more than 500 people who had gone there from Gilgil and Naivasha – both joined to one centre. That centre had only one registration clerk, one registrar and two clerical officers that were supposed to be doing that job. The population in my constituency is estimated at about 300,000 people. The births are daily and the population is growing day by day. When you get a birth notification, you are supposed to wait for 90 days then you can get a birth certificate. This is a new requirement. Previously, birth certificates were required to register for exams. Right now, over 3,000,000 kids have not been registered. I know this is not a problem just in my constituency. Even when we tried to facilitate that office to go to Gilgil and other constituencies like a mobile clinic kind of thing, it was almost impossible because the three The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposes only. Acertified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}