This archive report was first published on 25 October 2019.
On Friday, October 25, 2019, Interior Cabinet Secretary Dr. Fred Matiang'i led an impromptu raid on the Department of Civil Registration at Bishop's House, cracking down on corruption cartels in the issuance of birth certificates.
Dr. Matiang'i ordered the immediate arrest of brokers behind the multi-million shilling corruption industry and assured Kenyans that the process of getting a birth certificate in Kenya will be corruption-free and much smoother by next week.
During the inspection, Dr. Matiang'i found long queues, unmanned and unmarked counters, and computers in disuse. He directed all personnel in charge to work over the weekend to ensure smoother processes by Monday.
"People should be coming in and immediately they should have someone verify that all their documents are in order," Dr. Matiang'i said. "After that, they should hand in their documents, get a ticket and go home. After about a week, they should get a SMS telling them that their certificate is ready to be collected."
He ordered that by Monday, the reception area should have seats for people with enquiries and all counters should be adequately labelled so that all customers will know the functions of every counter in order to prevent confusion.
Dr. Matiang'i also directed that every employee of the department will have a badge with their name and position by Monday, to help customers identify genuine workers.
He revealed that some unscrupulous government employees had deliberately made the system inefficient in order to frustrate Kenyans seeking the important document, leading to citizens being more likely to agree to "buy lunch" for an employee to get their documents fast-tracked.
Dr. Matiang'i assured that by Thursday next week, all Kenyans will have their birth certificates ready, and that the new system will be corruption-free and much smoother.
