By Ben Leshau
Applicants seeking birth certificates in Narok have decried alleged exploitation by some rogue registration officials who reportedly demand bribes of between Sh500 to Sh1,000.
Some of the parents who had turned up to obtain the document for their children as stipulated by the Education Ministry told Education News that getting the document has proved a daunting task to them.
According to Pastor Salvan Ntokoiwan, who had collected some documents for some members of his church, he has been camping at Narok North Registration of births and deaths office for the last three days to get birth certificates for his church members’ children without success.
“I came here on Sunday, spent in town and woke up to look for the documents on Monday. I queued and upon reaching the office an officer demanded that I give her Sh800 per form for her to process for me the over 20 forms yet I had only budgeted Sh150 per form,” claimed Ntokoiwan.
Mr Takwiwan who hails from Olposimoru said he has been forced to incur a lot including spending nights at a lodging to get the document in vain. He said he won’t part with a cent as it is against his religious faith.
Last week, Ethics and Anti Corruption Commission (EACC) detectives arrested a Huduma Centre Narok employee for allegedly soliciting a Sh1,000 bribe from a parent to fast-track processing of a birth certificate.
Another applicant William Kosgei who hails from Sogoo Ward in Narok West has spent Sh2,800 fare for the last seven days which translates to Sh400 daily seeking for the certificates for his five kids.
“They are demanding that I give the Sh5,000 to get the document yet I have spent another almost Sh3,000 on fare .This is unfair and the Government should intervene,” lamented Kosgei.
Ironically, despite some applicants paying Sh1,000, the receipt indicates that he/she has paid Sh150.
Sought for comment, area Registrar Juma Masinde urged parents seeking services to report any incidence of bribery.
“It is true there is a big challenge here. We have huge number of applicants and whenever there is such a crowd opportunists are always there. I have raised the issue with the police and so far three people have been arrested for extorting bribes,” noted Mr Masinde.
He also attributed the crowding challenge to shortage of staff which, he said, makes it hard for the Government to take the registration to the sub-county level.
“We only have five staff here who are not sufficient for us to work at the sub-county but should we have more staff from the headquarters that could ease the burden,”he said.
The scramble to beat the deadline comes at the time the government has extended the registration of learners on the National Education Management Information System (Nemis) to March 31.
Education PS Belio Kipsang said so far, only 3.8 million (35 per cent) out of 11 million pupils have registered.
