- Minister Kipchumba Murkomen announced the government’s plan to abolish birth and death certificate fees to increase civil registration
- Murkomen also confirmed the approval to divide civil registration offices in all states in the country
- The Minister explained the reasons for the ongoing efforts after historical delays and the difficulty in obtaining important documents
Kirinyaga: The government has announced ongoing efforts to waive birth certificate application fees to increase civil registration across the country.
Source: Facebook
Minister of Interior Dating Murkomen he made the announcement on Wednesday, January 28, during the inauguration of the headquarters of the Department of Inoi and the inauguration of the National Registration Office and Civil Registration Services in Kiawara, Kirinyaga Central sub-county.
He revealed that the President William Ruto he is expected to issue a final statement once ongoing consultations with key stakeholders are complete.
Will Ruto remove birth certificate fees?
The minister noted that the proposal would reflect the government’s successful waiver of national ID registration fees, which significantly increased uptake.
“The President is still considering many issues regarding this matter. As soon as everything is completed, you will be informed. Just as he removed the ID fees, he is working on something about birth certificates to enable our children to get those documents in a timely manner according to the government’s notice from the bottom up. This is a government that listens,” Murkomen said.
In his statement, he emphasized that the replacement of IDs and new applications will be free and will take less than seven days.
In addition, he announced the approval of decentralization of civil registration services to improve the writing of documents.
Why is the government decentralizing the registration of citizens?
Murkomen said that civil registration offices will be located in ID registration centers to make it easier to apply for birth and death certificates.
“We want to ensure that all State ID registration centers will also set up civil registration offices to issue birth and death certificates to all Kenyans. We will send officers to those offices so that Kenyans will not have problems when they seek these services,” he said.
Source: Facebook
He noted that the availability of important documents is important because they play an important role during school enrollment, employment, health services, and other government services.
Despite its importance, high costs, long distances, and queues at registration offices have historically prevented many Kenyans from obtaining these documents.
Currently, the standard cost of obtaining birth and death certificates is KSh 250, up from KSh 50 previously, while late registration costs KSh 500.
“Access to important government services was a common appeal from citizens in our Security Forum platforms across the country. The government is committed to honoring those requests in the shortest possible time, giving priority to areas where citizens have to travel long distances to access services and areas with high population density,” he said.
How can you apply for a birth certificate online?
In related news, TUKO.co.ke previously explained how parents can apply for their children’s birth certificates through the platform eCitizen.
With the child’s birth notification, national ID, and other required documents such as baptism cards, log in to the eCitizen portal, select Citizen Registration Services, then click ‘Request Birth Certificate.’
Fill in the child’s details and parents’ information, upload supporting documents, make the required payments, then submit the completed form.
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Source: TUKO.co.ke
