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Gov't announces changes in issuance of birth & death certificates

Immigration and Citizen Services PS Julius Bitok has announced when the gov't will start issuing digital birth certificates

Immigration and Citizen Services Principal Secretary Julius Bitok

The government has announced changes in the issuance of birth and death certificates.

Immigration and Citizen Services Principal Secretary Julius Bitok said that the government plans to phase out the issuance of traditional certificates.

Digital certificates will be issued from March 1, in line with a directive by President William Ruto.

Bitok explained that the digitization of birth and death certificates was also in line with the implementation of the Unique Personal Identifier (UPI) to act as a lifetime ID for newborns.

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According to Immigration and Citizen Service PS Julius Bitok, the digital ID the current administration is pushing for is different from Huduma Namba which was conceptualised by former President Uhuru Kenyatta’s government.

Named the Unique Personal Identifier (UPI), the proposed digital identity will be assigned to everyone who qualifies for Kenyan citizenship at birth.

It can be used as the school admission number as well as the index number for national examinations. UPI can serve as the ID number on attaining 18 years, the registration number for NHIF, NSSF and driving license number,” Bitok said in an article.

"An obvious question is how different UPI will be from Huduma Namba. Whereas the latter sought to register citizens afresh under a different system, UPI will repurpose an existing and continuous exercise,” the PS explained.

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He added that nurses and other medical personnel in maternity facilities will continue to undertake registration while assistant chiefs will register community births.

The president set a goal to fully digitalize 5,000 government services by the end of June, with a focus on streamlining processes, improving delivery, and facilitating information sharing.

During the recent commemoration of Data Protection Day, Ruto explained that with the digitisation of government services, Kenyans will require digital identification.

In the next 6 months, we will have 5,000 services available in the digital space,” he stated, adding that so far, his administration had digitised over 600 services.

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I have also asked the Ministry of ICT to also work on a digital identity so that the big Huduma thing (Huduma Namba) that never was... we can finally have as Kenya, a digital identity. I have told my good friend Eliud that by the end of this year, Kenyans must be able to identify themselves digitally,” the head of state said.

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