The Immigration and Citizen Services Principal Secretary Julius Bitok, announced that citizens applying for birth and death certificates will now receive their documents on the day of application, effective immediately.
The move is intended to reduce the backlog of pending applications and alleviate the long waiting periods experienced by applicants.
The PS made the announcement during the launch of the Civil Registration Services office for the South Imeni sub-county in Nkubu, Meru County.
The objective of expediting the issuance of certificates is to encourage more citizens to register their births and deaths.
Consequently, he has instructed all registration officers to ensure that every individual who visits their offices is provided with the document on the same day.
“We are doing this so that, as a country, we can officially record more deaths than the 55% that is the current rate,” he said.
The PS also pointed out that unreported cases of death pose a threat to effective succession within families and also create an environment for criminal acts such as fraud and impersonation.
He encouraged Meru residents to utilize the new offices to obtain birth certificates, which are necessary for school enrolment and subsequent identification documents such as ID cards and passports.
Additional, PS Bitok announced that the national average for birth registration is presently about 87% and that more offices will be established across the country to increase accessibility to essential documents.
