State moves to ‘clean up’ births, deaths registry

Interior CS Fred Matiang'i and PS Karanja Kibicho after a press briefing on the operation at the Civil Registration Department in Milimani, Nairobi. [Boniface Okendo,Standard]

Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i has overhauled the Civil Registry Department in an attempt to sanitise the agency charged with issuing birth and death certificates.

The changes have led to the arrest of some officers at their Nairobi’s Bishop House branch where a bulk of the documents were being processed.

“What was happening here was humiliation and members of the public begging to get services from officers who have been employed to serve them,” Matiang’i said while addressing the press at Bishop House. He said the changes were prompted by numerous calls and complaints from members of the public over claims that the officers were asking for bribes to facilitate the process.

Inspector General Hillary Mutyambai gave out the names of 24 employees who have been implicated in corruption incidents and delays in processing certificates. He said some of them are still at large and urged them to report to the nearest police station.

Investigations

“Government officials charged with corruption are being sought and should report to the nearest police station if they have not been arrested already, to assist police with further investigations,” he said.

Some of these officials implicated include principal records management officers, principal civil registration officers and clerical officers stationed at the central registry.

The joint report issued by the Ministry of ICT and Interior found that other than the outright soliciting for bribes, some of the sneaky ways the officers were using to swindle the public included deliberately slowing or jamming the ICT system.

“This was creating an artificial backlog so that anyone who wants to be fast-tracked has to pay a bribe in order to jump the queue. Those who do not pay remain a frustrated lot,” read the report.

They also noted that there is a heinous operation between some hospitals and officers where parents are lured to pay hospital administrators an exorbitant fee for birth certificates to be issued without authentication.

The racket primarily targets illegal immigrants seeking citizenship through the backdoor.

Matiang’i said they spent the last two weeks reviewing processes, procedures, and systems to address fundamental problems bedeviling issuing of birth and death certificates.

“There will be no more anxiety for parents who are looking for certificates to register their children to schools in January,” Matiang’i said.