Gilgil MP Martha Wangari pushes law to end '450 km trips' for birth certificates

The National Assembly has passed a bill requiring at least one birth and death registration office to be established in every constituency. This is expected to put an end to the years of delays that have forced millions of Kenyans to travel long distances to obtain vital documents.

This legislative change follows an amendment to the Births and Deaths Registration (Amendment) Bill, 2024, sponsored by Gilgil MP Martha Wangari, who says she was motivated by the frustrations her constituents faced during the NEMIS registration process. She notes that parents spent entire days in queues, with many still being turned away.

Initially, only Naivasha, Njoro, Bahati and town centres had registration offices. “My constituents in Gilgil had to go all the way to Naivasha,” she says.

Ms Wangari also observed that other parts of the country had only one registration centre per county and that, out of more than 300 sub-counties nationally, only 157 had these offices.

"That is a gross disservice because people travel nearly 450 kilometres just to get birth certificates. The shortage created fertile ground for corruption, with chiefs and brokers offering to "assist" desperate applicants. This used to happen a lot in Gilgil," she says.

She argues that access to civil registration should not depend on the goodwill of the existing Cabinet Secretary.

"We need to mandate them by law to ensure that every sub-county has an office," she says.
Gilgil eventually received its registration office in 2020. Ms Wangari says she continued to push for the amendment 'for posterity', and she is satisfied that it has now advanced and is awaiting presidential assent.

However, she warns that implementation will be the next hurdle, noting that funding and prioritisation have historically slowed progress.

“Without a birth certificate, you can't get a passport or a NEMIS number. For parents with several children, life is already difficult,” she says.

To bridge the gaps, she recommends that constituencies use CDF allocations to provide office space and basic infrastructure before the state allocates its full resources.

In Nakuru County, the opening of the Kuresoi South office in September 2024 increased the number of civil registration centres to seven, which is still fewer than the county’s eleven constituencies.