Kenya says e-birth notification should reach SHA hospitals within three months

Kenya's State Department for Immigration and Citizen Services should extend its electronic birth notification system to hospitals contracted by the Social Health Authority (SHA) within three months, Principal Secretary Belio Kipsang said on 6 October, as quoted by the Kenyan news website Kenyans.co.ke. He said the expansion is expected to be completed by December.

Kipsang said: "Within the next three months, we shall be able to roll out this system". He added: "We already finalised our engagement with the Ministry of Health." He said the Interior Ministry was finalising talks with the Ministry of Health to connect the civil registration system with hospital management systems.

Under the system, a hospital enters a newborn's details and sends them electronically to Civil Registration Services, which generates a Unique Personal Identifier (UPI) for the child. The site said the ministry was also working with the Ministry of Education to clean and digitise student records. Kipsang said that once students have the UPI, "they can download and print their birth certificates for themselves".

Citizen Digital, the news website of Kenyan broadcaster Royal Media Services, reported on 10 October that Kipsang also spoke about the system at Mazingira Day celebrations in Nandi County. The outlet said hospitals will enter the child's name, the parents' names and the date and place of birth before submitting them electronically. It said hospital staff will be trained so that mothers receive an e-notification after delivery.

Citizen Digital said the UPI will be used in the education system and other government services, and can be linked to an application for a national identity card when the child turns 18. It added that the immigration department is building capacity in hospitals for the rollout.

The system is already in use. The Kenyan newspaper People Daily reported on 20 September that more than 270,000 newborns had been registered and assigned UPIs in two months, with birth certificates expected to be processed within one to three days. The report cited a spot check by a local station at Tenwek Hospital in Bomet County on 19 September.

Civil Registration Services said the rollout had begun in phases, starting with Nairobi County, the industry website Biometric Update reported on 21 May.

Kipsang also described the system to MPs. He told the National Assembly Departmental Committee on Administration and Internal Security, while defending the department's 2026/2027 budget estimates, that development of the e-notification system was complete and that it would be rolled out soon, the Daily Nation reported on 18 May. The Nation said the UPI is commonly called the Maisha Number and becomes a national identity card number at 18.

The Nation reported that the system is meant to stop people changing their ages or holding more than one birth certificate.

On 22 June, Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen said Kenyans could now download and print birth certificates online, The Star reported. The paper said the change could reduce visits to Huduma Centres and civil registration offices.

Kipsang said the government was finalising a similar e-notification system for deaths, the Kenya News Agency reported on 25 June.