The Government has opened a new office to register births and deaths in the expansive Tiaty constituency in Baringo County.
Immigration PS Julius Bitok said the Civil Registration Services office located at Chemolingot shopping centre will offer respite to residents who have been travelling long distances to Kabarnet town to obtain the same services.
The new station is expected to raise the percentage of registered births among the predominantly pastoral residents with many children currently unregistered due to challenges associated with distant registration centres, harsh terrain and insecurity.
“We know some residents have been covering nearly 300 kms to travel to Kabarnet and this has been at huge time and financial cost. We want to bring this to an end so that we can have birth certificates obtained as soon as possible and at affordable costs,” the PS said.
He announced that a mobile registration drive for National ID cards targeting late registration will be conducted in Tiaty for the many eligible residents who are yet to obtain the document.
Chemolingot is the fifth CRS office in Baringo County which has an estimated population of 900,000 and has six constituencies. Besides Kabarnet, the other offices are in Mogotio, Ravine and Kabartonjo. Tiaty MP William Kamket and other local leaders blamed the long distances to government offices for the low levels of registered births and deaths in the constituency.
“The journey from Kolowa to Kabarnet is around 300 km, and there are no roads. It costs Ksh 3,000 one way. You have to sell a goat or something else toget the money. It takes more than a day, so you have to factor in food and accommodation too,” Kamket said.
The leaders claimed the constituency was missing out on its fair share of population-based national government resources especially in the education sector, CDF and other funds.
“If you go to our primary schools for instance, you will find only around 200 learners are registered with the National Education Management Information System (NEMIS) yet the school has a population of over 700,” said Baringo County Woman representative Jematiah Sergon .
The same challenges were attributed to the low number of registered voters in the community.
According to IEBC records, there are 39,059 registered voters in Tiaty but leaders belive the number of eligible voters is much higher Other leaders present were Baringo North MP Joseph Makilap, West Pokot Woman representative Rael Aleutum, Keses MP Julius Ruto, CRS boss Paul Mwangemi and his NRB counterpart Christopher Wanjau among others.
