Interior Cabinet Secretary Joseph ole Lenku also says the government is concerned about the current registration levels of birth and deaths in the country/FILE
Interior Cabinet Secretary Joseph ole Lenku also says the government is concerned about the current registration levels of birth and deaths in the country.
“The intended crash registration program will enable the government to attain a complete reliable and automated population register,” he pointed out.
He says according to statistics, only 834,847 births were registered in 2013 out of the estimated 1,434,531 births. On deaths at the same period, out of the 400,679 deaths that occurred, only 189,381 were registered.
“This means that 599,864 births and 211,298 deaths were not registered,” he regretted.
This represent 60 percent of new births recorded in 2013 and 47 percent which Lenku says are way below what should be recorded.
“To correct the anomaly, the government has therefore as a matter of urgency, decided to embark on a mop up registration exercise to ensure that all persons resident in Kenya who were not previously registered are registered and their data captured in the national population register,” he explained.
Within the set period, all County Commissioners are required to ensure the completeness of the births and deaths register in their counties, ensure teams carrying out the exercise are mobilised and initiate a sensitisation programme to elicit support of stakeholders.
They will also be required to ensure that all set targets are achieved within the timelines while ensuring that the process is not, “marred with issues of integrity.”
Lenku who presided over the launch of the Rapid Results Initiative at the Kenya School of Monetary Studies on Wednesday said the database will serve as a source of information for all government departments.
He instructed County Commissioners to spearhead the initiative by recording all deaths and births in their respective regions as well as updating all the missing information in the registers.
He said the “exercise will utilise household enumeration approach whereby information regarding persons will be captured under the following categories in a prescribed format; persons between 0 and 18 years of age, persons above 18 years of age and have already acquired national ID cards and persons above 18 years of age but who do not have national ID cards.”
The information he says will greatly help the country attain and sustain universal births and deaths registration.
The CS noted that the initiative is part of the government efforts of ensuring all Kenyans are given the new third generation identity card fitted with electronic chips within this financial year.
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