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Birth certificates scandal that is likely to deny your child grade one admission

By Amina Wako November 3rd, 2019 2 min read

In the wake of the arrest of 24 officials at the Civil Registration Bureau (CRB), it has now emerged that multiple birth certificates share the same birth certificate number.

This was revealed after a parent tried to register his child for grade one slot in 2020 through the National Education Management Information System (NEMIS).

CORRUPTION

Dr Paul Mwaniki a parent who spoke to NTV said that when he went to register his daughter who is joining grade one next year, the school discovered the birth certificate number has already been used to register another child in the system.

“This number they shared not only by one child but several children seem to have that number as per what we saw on the computer,” Dr Mwaniki said.

Dr Mwaniki cannot register his child for class one using the NEMIS as required by the government under the Ministry of Education regulations.

His effort to visit the registrar is yet to bear fruits with things getting harder each day.

“I have severally been told the system is down. Maybe the system is intentionally put down to frustrate people,” Dr Mwaniki said.

Earlier, several officers from the registrar were arrested by detectives from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) over corruption claims.

CARTELS

The officers from various departments have been accused of soliciting bribes from the public to process birth and death certificates.

Police Inspector-General Mutyambai, who had accompanied the Cabinet Secretary Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i shared the names of 24 officers over the claims.

The police boss also said more arrest will take place at hospitals in Nairobi involving suspects believed to be part of cartels in the registration for certificates.

Among those on the list is the CRB regional coordinator Paul Kagiri, Principal Records Officer Charles Akwoni, Principal Civil Registration officer Charity Mwadime and her assistant, Jane Maina among others.

The crackdown followed complains from members of the public about the slow processing of certificates at the department’s ACK Bishop House offices.