The Government hopes to do away with the national census as the primary means of establishing the country’s population with the introduction of the Unique Personal Identifier (UPI).
Immigration and Citizen Services PS Prof Julius Bitok said UPI will be issued to newborns in Kenya from next month.
He says it will also serve as the death certificate number upon the demise of the holder and will aid in the maintenance of accurate population records.
“In many countries which are advanced, you don’t need a 10-year census where people are counted at night. What we’re are launching is foundational to ensure that in future, we have accurate data about our population,” he said.
Bitok who was addressing a workshop on UPI rollout for regional and county Civil Registration officers at the Kenya School of Government said the government hoped to attain 100 per cent registrations of births with the introduction of the new system.
Currently, 14 out of every 100 births go unregistered in the country, the majority of them being from among the 30 percent of countywide deliveries that occur at home or in other places besides maternity institutions.
The government further hopes the number of registered deaths will increase significantly from the current 56 percent with the benefit of easy access to digital death certificates.
The UPI which will replace the current Birth Entrance Number (BEN) is intended to be the primary identification reference for its holders with the number expected to be used in learning institutions as the student number.
Upon attainment of 18, UPI will graduate into the national ID thereby negating the need for registration by the National Registration Bureau as is the current practice.
“That number will be used subsequently in life. The UPI will be used in school and later in life to be the ID number when they get 18 years old. They’ll use that number as the KRA number, as the NHIF, NSSF...etc. It’ll be a number for everything that a citizen will need,” the PS said.
"On February 15, 2023, President William Ruto identified the digitisation of government services as a priority agenda of his administration and set a target of onboarding at least 5,000 services onto the e-Citizen platform."
Bitok said a successful rollout of the UPI could effectively negate the need for vetting of communities living close to international boundaries as a prerequisite to issuing them with IDs, passports and other identification documents.
“On the introduction of UPI, we shall be able to do away with vetting because everything will be digital. The database from NRB or IPRS will be accessible such that if we need the details of the parent, we are able to confirm digitally that a person is a Kenya or not.”
He also touted UPI as a game changer in enhancing the collection of revenue linked to the charges pegged to the issuance of the relevant documents.
The new system will also play a critical role in the consolidation and integration of data.
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