By FRANKLINE SUNDAY

NAIROBI: Kenyans living in rural areas can now digitally register their newborn babies, saving them long trips to Government offices and health centres.

This follows the development of a mobile-based civil birth registration platform that allows for real-time creation of birth records from any part of the country.

The new system, which has been developed by software company SAP, utilises a combination of biometric scanning and cloud storage to create a database of all children born in Kenya.

Once a baby is born, birth attendants or nurses can record details of the newborn using a smartphone, uploading essential details like name, sex, parents’ names and retinal scans of the baby.

The data will then be synced with data at the Kenyan Civil Registration Department through an app, creating a permanent and precise record of the birth.

The app is available on a smartphone integrated with SAP cloud-based technology, making the data easily accessible by any health care worker or representative from the Government.

Registration drive

The system was launched last week, a day after the Government announced that a Sh8 billion digital registration drive would be conducted for all persons aged 12 and above over the next six months.

“Our challenge as SAP was to develop a simple mobile birth registration application prototype to enable a responsible individual, with the help of a mobile phone, register the birth of any child within 90 days,” said Prof Jan Eloff, a research expert with SAP.

“We hope to secure the buy-in of the Kenyan Government and then ultimately roll this out elsewhere in Africa in the future.”

According to the United Nations Children’s Fund, (UNICEF), 66 per cent of children born in sub-Saharan Africa are not registered at birth, the highest proportion of unregistered births worldwide.

This not only makes the process of getting identification documents difficult, it also cripples governments’ planning of public services like healthcare and education.

Kenya has tried for several years to develop a digital register at the Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH), but the process has so far been stillborn, owing to bureaucracy and logistical challenges brought about by changes in administration.

Most of the records that are used for national planning are still based on unreliable manual filing systems, despite the rapid development of digital technology in the country.

“The registries that we have had in the past have been unreliable, and we do not have a comprehensive registry of births for people under 17 years, which is a big chunk of the country’s population,” said Mr Joseph Tiapati, the Principal Secretary at the ministry of Information, Communication and Technology.

The situation is more serious in rural areas, where access to Government facilities and personnel is limited.

“We must be able to link digital transformation directly to benefit citizens,” said Mr Andrew Waititu, the managing director for SAP East Africa.

“We are good at measuring cost, which is easy, but measuring value is different. If we cannot create this link, then maybe we should re-think the strategy.”

Last week, Deputy President William Ruto announced the Government would kick off a national biometric registration drive over the next six months to create Kenya’s first ever national digital registry. 

The ambitious project is being carried out by an inter-ministerial taskforce led by the ministry of Information. Others include the custodian ministries of Interior and Co-ordination of National Government, and the registrations of persons and lands.

Kenyans aged 12 and above will be expected to give their places of birth and unique biological identifiers.

Older citizens will also be required to give details about their assets, including land.

fsunday@standardmedia.co.ke