Kenya’s births and deaths registers misleading, says CS Joseph ole Lenku

Interior Cabinet Secretary Joseph ole Lenku. [PHOTO: STANDARD]

NAIROBI, KENYA: The government has launched automated registration of births and deaths to update the existing records that are misleading.

Interior Cabinet Secretary Joseph ole Lenku said the exercise will be concluded within three months and added most of the births and deaths that occurred in 2013 were not registered.

Lenku blamed the current insecurity in the country to weak identification exercise as well as corruption in the registration department.

He said up to 60% of births and 47% of deaths that occurred last year were not recorded.

Lenku revealed that only 834,847 out of 1.4 million births were registered in 2013.

In the same year, only 189,381 out of 400,679 people who died are appearing in government records.

"This means that 599,864 births and 211,298 deaths were not registered," he lamented.

Lenku gave County Commissioners three months to set up the national digital register in their respective areas to enable the government update the existing records.

Within the period, the officials are required to ensure the completeness of the births and deaths register in their Counties, ensure teams carrying out the exercise are mobilized and initiate a sensitization programme to elicit support of stakeholders.

Lenku who presided over the launch of the Rapid Results Initiative at the Kenya School of Monetary Studies yesterday said the data base will serve as a source of information for all government departments.

He instructed county commissioners to spearhead the initiative by recording all deaths and births in their respective regions as well as updating all the missing information in the registers.

This will include information for both people who are below 18 years and above.

The information he says will greatly help the country to attain and sustain universal births and deaths registration.

"To correct the anomaly, the Government has therefore as a matter of urgency, decided to embark on a mop up registration exercise to ensure that all persons resident in Kenya who were not previously registered are registered and their data captured in the National population register," he said.

He said the initiative is part of the government efforts of ensuring all Kenyans are given the new third generation identity card fitted with electronic chips within this financial year.

"The intended crash registration program will enable the Government to attain a complete reliable and automated population register."

He said this is in line with the Government commitment to have National Master Data Base activated at birth.

With the third generation identification cards the Government will be able to, "get all information required about the individuals that are authentic and that will be used for any purpose...whether for electoral purposes, taxation reasons and social security identification of individuals."

The register will also assist the country in planning and also help, "seal loopholes that lead to insecurity."

Lenku cautioned all the people who will be involved in the exercise against engaging in corruption related activities saying they will be punished as per the law.

"As you are aware, incomplete registration, weak identification systems and corruption in various registration departments is one of the key factors which have greatly contributed to insecurity in the country," he pointed out.