The Ministry of Local Government Monday launched the civil registration week, seeking to encourage people to record delayed registrations of births and deaths.

Initiated three years ago, the annual campaign came as a response to the high number of unregistered births and deaths, which officials said was affecting government’s programmes to ensure proper planning for the population.

This year’s campaign that was launched in Kigarama Sector, Kirehe District in the Eastern Province, is also designed to inspire cohabiting couples to formalise their marriages as well as facilitate parents who have adopted children to register them. 

Minister of State in charge of social affairs, Dr Alvera Mukabaramba

In the fiscal year ended June 2019, Kigarama Sector was ranked among the worst, countrywide, in civil registry.

Agnes Nyanzira, from the sector, used the occasion to register her one year and eight months baby.

She said; "I was always willing to register my child, and we are lucky this campaign is making it easier for us.”

Gerald Muzungu, the Mayor of Kirehe District, said; "We’ll identify children who are not registered and register them…it is clear that some parents have neglected the registration process.”

Kirehe District Mayor, Gerald Muzungu

Kirehe District has a population of 396,956 people, 200,348 of whom are female.

According to official figures, the district recorded 10,106 new-borns in the last fiscal year. Seventy-nine per cent of them were born in health facilities.

In the 2019/20 performance contracts (Imihigo), the district targets to register 90 per cent of total births and 100 per cent of registration of deaths.

"There are residents who have not yet understood the importance of birth or death registration. This is a mindset problem,” Oswald Ntagwabira, Director of Good Governance at Kirehe District, said.

Parents watching their children being registered

Ntagwabira also raised challenges including the three parallel online systems used to register children in Rwanda – National Population Registry, Civil Registration Vital Statistics and Health Management Information System – which he said needed to be harmonised.

The Minister of State in charge of Social Affairs Dr Alvera Mukabaramba, said that the government was in the process of harmonising the systems.

"Only a few children are born at other places other than health facilities. So, there will be a personnel the health facility in charge of civil registration. When the mother is discharged from the hospital, they will be given a birth certificate for their child right away,” she disclosed.

The proposed law on this is pending cabinet approval.

Before August 2016, a parent was obliged to register their child within 15 days after birth, and a dead person had to be legally declared dead by their family within 15 after death.

Once the family did not register birth or death that had just taken place within this period, only the court had authority to approve the registry to happen.

Since August 2016, however, the deadline was extended to 30 days.

editor@newtimesrwanda.com