State to issue new birth and death digital certificates under the Unique Personal Identifier (UPI) adoption

PS for Immigration and Citizen Services, Julius Bitok.

Julius Bitok, the PS for Immigration and Citizen Services, says that the national government plans to stop giving out traditional certificates over the next few months.

President William Ruto has given an order that digital certificates will be given out starting on March 1.

Bitok elaborated that the digitalization of birth and death certificates was also in accordance with the adoption of the Unique Personal Identifier (UPI), which would serve as a lifelong ID for newborns. He said this was the case because the UPI would be used to identify newborns.

Immigration and Citizenship Services PS Julius Bitok says that the digital ID that the current government is pushing for is different from Huduma Namba, which was thought up by the government of former President Uhuru Kenyatta.

The planned digital identification, which will be given the name "Unique Personal Identifier" (UPI), would be given to every individual who is eligible for Kenyan citizenship at the time of birth.

"It is possible to utilize it for both the index number for national tests as well as the school entrance number." According to what Bitok mentioned in an article, a UPI may function as the ID number once the individual reaches the age of 18, the registration number for NHIF and NSSF, and the driving license number.

The degree to which UPI will diverge from Huduma Namba is an issue that naturally arises. As the PS said, UPI would use a project that is already underway. This is different from the previous plan, which was to register people again under a different system.

He went on to say that nurses and other medical staff working in maternity institutions would still be in charge of registration, while assistant chiefs would be in charge of registering births that happened in communities.

The President has ordered that all 5,000 government services must be completely digitalized by the end of June. This will help him reach his goal, which is to streamline operations, improve delivery, and make it easier to share information.

During the recent celebration of Data Protection Day, President William Ruto stressed that Kenyans would need digital identities to use digital versions of government services.

"Within the next six months, we will have 5,000 services accessible in the digital area," he claimed, adding that so far, his administration has digitized over 600 services. "In the next six months, we will have 5,000 services available in the space," President William Ruto said.

"I have also urged the Ministry of ICT to work on a digital identity so that the large Huduma item that never was (Huduma Namba) may finally have a digital identity as Kenya."

"I have talked my close friend Eliud that by the end of this year, Kenyans must be able to identify themselves digitally," President Ruto remarked.