Registering a birth in Kenya

A child born in Kenya should be registered immediately after birth or within the first six months. This should be done by the parents or the designated guardians. Even if a child dies at birth, it still needs to be registered.

If your child is born in the hospital, all medical facilities in Kenya provide a birth notification card. However if your child was born at home, the Sub-Chief is authorized to register births in his location. In Nairobi all births are registered at the City Hall. You can also get birth registration services at the County Birth and Death Registries.

In order to register a birth, you are required to provide the child's name – this is optional though in cases where a child dies without being named or for those communities that name their children after a certain period. You must also tell whether your child was born alone or part of multiple births, date and place of birth and details of the mother which include her name, age, marital status, previous births, residential area and her district of birth. If you are married you should provide the name of the father. You sign the birth notification and then fill form A1 to apply for the birth certificate. If you already had a birth notification from the hospital, you straight ahead fill form B1.

Once through, the registry office will provide you with an Acknowledgement of Birth card with a serial number. You will use it to pick your child's birth certificate after 3 weeks.

If you are a citizen of another country, you will need to check with the embassy of that (those) nation(s) as countries have different procedures.