MP, DCC come to the rescue of desperate parents seeking Birth certificates.

Thika Town MP Eng. Patrick Wainaina addressing more than 400 parents who had pitched camp at the Civil Registrar's office for birth certificates on Wednesday.

A last minute intervention by Thika Town MP Eng. Patrick Wainaina and Thika West DCC Tom Anjere prevented a possible crisis as hundreds of parents flooded the area Registrar of Persons office to apply for birth certificates for their children in order to beat next week’s Ministry of Education deadline.

More than 300 parents who were still uncertain whether or not they would beat the deadline impatiently protested over what they called delays in the vetting process for issuing birth certificates. 

The applicants were up in arms over what they said was reluctance by the relevant offices to process the documents as well as accusing some of the officials at the registrar’s office of corruption.

Armed with the requisite documents, the frustrated parents pitched camp outside the sub-county office and demanded to be addressed by the civil registrar Mary Muriuki. They alleged that they were ‘intentionally’ denied service in order for them to bribe their way to what they believed to be a fundamental right.

It was also alleged that officials had also employed the services of brokers who extorted money from parents on the pretext of helping them to process the documents.

Some claimed that their efforts to get help from Huduma Centre had failed to bear any fruits since the situation was a replica of the civil registrar’s office.

“These officers are frustrating us so that they can collect bribes from desperate parents for a service that is supposed to be offered for free. I can tell you for a fact that the delays here are deliberate and driven by the greed for money,” shouted one parent.

Responding to their grievances, Mrs. Muriuki said that her office has been receiving more than 500 applications per day for the past two weeks, consequently stretching her officers beyond limit.

“The process has turned chaotic especially within the last two weeks with hundreds of late applicants with children in class eight and form four flocking the office, since candidates cannot register for KCPE or KCSE without birth certificates, hence the mad rush. Previously, very few of them came here for registration,” she said.

Muriuki also blamed the delay on the scarcity of the certificates from the government printer.

Area MP offered to lend the office some more computers and printers from the CDF office so as to ease the backlog. He also requested the officers to work extra hours even if it meant to work over the weekend in order to clear learners back to school.

“The public expect quality services regardless of the situation and it is every citizen’s right to get a birth certificate. I will assist you to perform your duties in whatever way you ask me to even if it means to offer you extra machinery or man-power,” said the MP.

The DCC promised to deploy about 10 temporary staff from other departments for the next 10 days with a view to assisting the officers to hasten the clearance of these documents.

“I have also communicated with the head office and they have assured me that the (Birth) Certificates are ready and we will make arrangements as how they will get to you,” said Anjere.

Late last year, Former Education Cs Fred Matiang’i directed that all learners from nursery school to university to be assigned a six- character Unique Personal Identifier (UPI) linked to an electronic database with all the education records of the individual.

The Kenya National Education Management Information System (Nemis), similar to the personal identification number (PIN) issued to taxpayers for purposes of transacting business with the Kenya Revenue Authority and other Government agencies, will be used as ‘the single source of truth for information’ on all Kenyan learners and schools.

The tamper-proof system will be the ultimate record for the sector as it will consolidate data from all the Ministry of Education institutions. The students' identifier will take the form 'AAA-BBB' and will be used at every stage of the student's education.

By the click of a button, it will be easy to track the academic progress and qualifications of all persons, which will effectively deal a blow to cheats who resort to bogus academic papers.

The Nemis database will be available to potential employers, colleges and other stakeholders for verification of individuals' details before admission or offer of a job.

The school code take the form 'AAAA' and institutions without the special codes will be shut down.

“We will close down all schools that will not be in our database,” warned Matiang'i.