Vihiga county residents have been left helpless as the county government has failed to issue birth certificates, blaming it on delay of the government printers.
This, together with lack of enough civil registration officers has kept 18,720 birth certificate applications in the county pending.
The setbacks revealed by county civil registrar Joseph Owiti are said to originate from the main offices in Nairobi.
“The backlog should not be blamed on our Mbale office (Vihiga headquarters). Birth certificates are printed in Nairobi by the government printer. We only receive about 10 copies from the government printer every two to three weeks,” he said.
He added that the county only receives 10 books containing 100 certificates per week compared to over 3,000 birth certificate applications they get within the same period.
Most of the applications are said to be from candidates who will sit the 2019 primary and secondary end of school national examinations.
Some of the applications date back to February 2018 and some applicants have had to wait for more than a year to get the crucial document.