Kiambu County Commissioner, Alex Nkoyo, has called all the area chiefs and their assistants to ensure all persons from their area of jurisdiction are registered.
The commissioner said the administrators are expected to mop up all unregistered births and deaths of the target population in their respective locations and submit the registers to the district civil registrars within 100 days.
Addressing the administrators on Saturday from Kiambu Sub-County when launching Rapid Result Initiative (RRI) in registration of persons, Nkoyo noted that despite the efforts employed in the exercise the registration coverage in the county is still low compared to other areas.
The county administrator 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 upon 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.
Nkoyo 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.
He told the chiefs not to wait and register children when born in hospital, saying some women opt to give birth at their homes and their children need to be registered.
“I urge you chiefs and your assistants to be very careful when doing this exercise so to avoid registration of aliens as this will hold you responsible if something goes wrong,” he added.
Nkoyo warned administrators who will not perform the tasks effectively that they will face disciplinary measures.
He 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 occasion, Kiambu County Deputy Civil Registrar, Justus Kitsuvu said registration of those below 18 years will be free urging 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 birth certificate within six months after birth,” he said.
He stressed that his office is committed to attain 100 percent registrations of all births and death within 100 days.