Birth certificate backlog shocks Matiang’i
Interior Cabinet secretary Fred Matiang’i made a surprise visit to Kwale Civil Registry and found a huge backlog of pending birth certificate applications.
Applicants told the CS about the frustrations they undergo in the hands of government officials.
A parent said his Class Eight child failed to sit the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education examination this year because he could not register after he failed to get a birth certificate on time.
Matiang’’i said it was unacceptable that Kenyans have to wait for long to get the documents.
Printing paper
It emerged there are about 70,000 new birth certificate applications waiting to be processed in the Coast region.
The officer in charge of the bureau Charles Macharia blamed the backlog on shortage of printing papers.
“There is a backlog of 70,000 applications in the Coast region but there are no materials to process the applications. We managed to deal with a backlog of about 100,000 since July but we ran out of the printing papers,” he said.
Matiang’i said the government will move with speed to streamline issuance of birth certificates in the region.
“We are going to deal with this problem once and for all to ensure all our children get certificates,” he said.
