Kiambu County Commissioner Esther Maina has called on all chiefs and their assistants to ensure all persons residing in the county are registered.
Addressing the administrators in her office on Thursday, Ms Maina said the administrators are expected to mop up all unregistered births and deaths of in their respective locations and sub locations and submit them to the District Civil registrars within 100 days.
She noted that despite the efforts employed in the exercise, the registration coverage in the county is still low compared to other areas.
The county commissioner observed that the government plans to establish a universal registration system which will streamline other registration systems such as the national identity card registration and voter registration thus facilitating implementation of the digital transformation of government programmes.
She called on chiefs and their assistants to ensure all persons below 18 years in their locations are registered and issued with birth certificate as this is a prerequisite in establishing the universal registration system.
Maina said that the administrators know everything that goes on in their areas and are well conversant with local residents thus they are entrusted in registration process.
She told the chiefs not to wait to register children when they are born in hospital, saying some women opt to give birth at their homes adding their children need to be registered.
“I urge you chiefs and your assistants to be very careful when doing this exercise so as to avoid registration of aliens. We will hold you responsible if something goes wrong,” she added.
She warned administrators who will not perform the tasks effectively that they will face disciplinary measures. She also encouraged women to acquire identity cards, saying many of them fear to go for the document when they are not authorised by their husbands.
“Many young people are also scared to go for identity cards because they fear being nabbed in connection with criminal activities,” she said.
Speaking in the same meeting Kiambu Sub County Registrar of Births Ms Jane Wangare said registration of those below 18 years will be free. She urged parents to ensure all their children have birth certificates.
“Some parents wait until their children are expecting to sit for national exams to apply for the certificate but this should not be the case because every child is supposed to be issued with a birth certificate within six months after birth,” she said.
She stressed that her office is committed to attain 100 per cent registrations of all births and death within 100 days.