The Government’s drive to ensure Kenyans obtain birth certificates, death certificates and national identity cards is facing serious challenges in Bungoma County due to inadequate staff, vehicles, office space and delays in processing applications.
Officials from the Department of National Registration Bureau (NRB) and the Department of Civil Registration Services told the National Assembly Departmental Committee on Administration and Internal Security that the shortages were hampering delivery of essential registration services.
The committee, led by its Chairperson Teso North MP Dr. Oku Kaunya, made the revelations during an inspection visit to Bungoma County to assess the issuance of national identification documents and civil registration services.
Bungoma County Registration Officer Kennedy Nyaega said the department has only two ageing vehicles, one of which serves the county after being borrowed from Kimilili.
“I only have two vehicles. They are very old vehicles. In fact, one was bought in 2007. It is the one serving us at the county level,” Nyaega said.
He said the shortage of vehicles had limited the department’s ability to reach residents in remote areas, particularly during routine registration exercises.
The situation temporarily improved during the Government’s 11-day Rapid Results Initiative (RRI), when additional vehicles and personnel were deployed from Nairobi.
During the exercise, Bungoma registered an additional 43,000 people, raising the total number reached through the initiative to about 101,000.
“The main challenge that we have is funding. When we talk about funding, the issue is mainly the repair of the vehicles that we have,” Nyaega said.
He said the additional vehicles enabled registration officers to move to sub-location level and reach people unable to travel to registration offices.
However, Nyaega said thousands of residents, including elderly people, persons with disabilities (PWDs) and people who had never attended school, remained without identification documents.
“We have the disabled people who cannot move. We have old people. Some of them never went to school. They don’t know anything about the ID. They are just there. So we are trying to assist them,” he said.
Elgeyo Marakwet Woman Representative Caroline Jeptoo Ng’elechei asked whether another RRI could help clear the backlog. Nyaega said another exercise would be useful if the department received adequate logistical support.
Between July and September 2026, Bungoma registered 19,361 people under the new registration programme, while 10,436 applications were processed under other categories.
The committee was also told that delays in producing identification cards were partly caused by staff shortages at NRB headquarters in Nairobi.
Nyaega said applications sent to Nairobi take between three weeks and one month before completed IDs are returned to Bungoma. Some county officers had temporarily been deployed to Nairobi to help clear the backlog.
The county is also awaiting additional live-capture kits that would allow more sub-counties to register applicants locally.
Only Mount Elgon, Cheptais, Kopsiro and Kimilili had received the mobile kits, while Bungoma South had recently received a new machine.
The committee further raised concerns over unsuitable offices and the security of sensitive government documents.
Nyaega said Tongaren operates from a rented building, while Kimaich registration services are offered from a single room provided by the Deputy County Commissioner.
In Webuye, the situation is worse after a divisional office was demolished following condemnation by public health officials.
“They are operating from a car park, parking space,” he said, warning that document security could not be guaranteed in such circumstances.
Bungoma County Commissioner Thomas Sankei said National Government Administration Officers continue to support registration exercises, particularly during RRI campaigns.
“Many times when the Department of National Registration Bureau is moving out for Rapid Results Initiative, it is only supported by National Government Administration officers,” Sankei said.
The committee also inspected civil registration services, where officials reported similar challenges in issuing birth and death certificates.
Sub-County Registrar of Births and Deaths Paul Wafula said Bungoma has 76 per cent coverage for birth registration and 64.8 per cent for death registration.
He said the department had expanded from four sub-counties to all 13, but the expansion had not been matched with additional personnel.
“Recently, in the month of April, we opened all the sub-counties. So we are now operating in all 13 sub-counties. We have offices there. The challenge is that we opened the doors of all sub-counties but only sent one officer, a registrar,” Wafula said.
