President assents to bill expanding birth and death registration offices

By Chemtai Kirui

 

NAIROBI, Feb 19 — Parents in rural Kenya may soon no longer need to travel to county headquarters to register newborns after President William Ruto signed amendments decentralizing birth and death registration services.

 

The Births and Deaths Registration (Amendment) law requires the establishment of at least one civil registration office in each of the country’s 290 constituencies, replacing a provision that previously gave the Cabinet Secretary discretion over where registration areas were set up.

 

Where the earlier law stated the Cabinet Secretary “may” appoint registration areas, the amendment now states the Cabinet Secretary “shall” establish them — creating a mandatory obligation that lawmakers said is intended to close long-standing access gaps in rural areas.

 

Members of Parliament who sponsored the bill argued that the country had fewer registration centers than constituencies, forcing many families to travel long distances to obtain birth and death certificates required for school enrolment, national examinations, social protection benefits and inheritance claims.

 

The government estimates a first-year rollout cost of KSh 219 million. An initial 147 constituency offices are expected to operate from existing Assistant County Commissioner administrative buildings to avoid construction delays. Each office will be staffed by a registrar, deputy registrar and clerk, according to legislative documents and the government’s implementation plan.

 

The law also formalizes citizens’ reporting duties. Parents and relatives are legally defined as “informants” and are required to report births and deaths within one month — the current registration window — to avoid additional vetting and higher fees associated with late registration.

 

The fee for current birth certification has been set at KSh 200.

 

Registered births will feed into the national Maisha Namba system, the unique personal identifier intended to remain with a citizen for life and eventually replace second-generation national identity cards.

 

Government officials say decentralized registration is expected to strengthen service delivery by linking civil registration data with the Social Health Authority and the National Education Management Information System.

 

Birth certificates are required for enrolment in schools and for registration under national health insurance schemes, and lawmakers said proximity to registration offices would reduce exclusion of rural children from education and healthcare services.

 

Civil registration data is also used for national planning, budgeting and social protection programs, including cash transfers and other targeted assistance schemes.

 

The President signed the legislation at State House alongside two other measures — reforms to the pyrethrum sector and a regulatory framework for social-work professionals — which the Presidency described as part of efforts to strengthen service delivery and sector oversight.

 

Civil-society organizations and child-rights advocates have long called for decentralized registration, arguing that delays in obtaining birth certificates can have lifelong consequences for access to public services and citizenship documentation.

 

However, some digital rights groups raised data-protection concerns following the law’s assent. The Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) and other privacy advocates have urged the government to clarify what categories of personal data will be collected and how they will be stored and protected, particularly as civil registration becomes linked to broader digital identity systems. They warned that weak safeguards could expose sensitive information to misuse if oversight mechanisms are not strengthened.

 

The law provides for phased implementation. Government documents indicate that the first tranche of 147 offices will be activated in the coming financial year using existing administrative infrastructure, with full coverage of all constituencies projected within two years, subject to budgetary allocations by the National Treasury.

 

By publication time, the Ministry responsible for interior and national registration had not provided additional details on the implementation timetable or confirmed when new offices would begin operations.

 

Lawmakers supporting the amendment said the success of the reforms would ultimately depend on timely funding and operationalization, saying that delays in staffing and equipping the new offices could blunt the law’s intended impact.