This archive report was first published on 3 November 2019.
On Friday, Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang'i and Information counterpart Joe Mucheru led a sting operation at the civil registry headquarters at ACK Bishop House in Nairobi, resulting in the arrest of over 20 suspects involved in a syndicate that had taken over the issuing of birth and death certificates.
The syndicate, which was built by corrupt officials at the Department of Civil Registration, had colluded with private hospitals to siphon bribes from Kenyans who needed these documents. The officials had created a backlog, deliberately slowing down the information and communication system at headquarters, which meant that Kenyans would not access death or birth certificates for at least six months unless they paid bribes.
Following a public outcry, detectives discovered that the cartel had recruited officials from several private hospitals in Nairobi who fed it with fake birth notifications. The officials then used these notifications to issue birth certificates to their clients, including foreigners.
Among those arrested in the operation were deputy registry director Paul Kagiri, principal records management officer Charles Akwoni, principal civil registration officer Charity Mwadime, her assistant Jane Wangari Maina, and several clerical officers.
Dr. Matiang'i and Mr. Mucheru described the rot at the registry as 'a deliberate effort to subvert services to genuine citizens so as to create avenues for corruption.' They stated that corrupt officers were taking home hundreds of thousands of shillings every month in bribes from poor desperate Kenyans.
Published on November 3, 2019.
