Minor’s Name Corrected

The Civil Registration Officer, Ruiru, finally corrected the register of birth of a minor to reflect the correct name of the father following an order of the Commission in line with section 13(1) of the Access to Information Act, 2016.

The minor’s mother made an application for review to the Commission for correction of the minor’s name under section 14 (1)(h) of the access to information law.

According to her, she made an application to the Principal Registrar of Births and Deaths on 3^rd September 2021 seeking the correction of misleading information in her daughter’s name which emanated from an error in the recording in the hospital at the time of her birth. Her daughter was born in a hospital in Ruiru in May 2020, however, a staff at the hospital entered wrong information in their records indicating that the minor’s biological father was one Mr. Kamau as opposed to Mr. Mwaura. She further alleged that the principal registrar’s office could not even receive the application which prompted her to send the application through courier services.

The registrar’s office having failed to address the matter, she sought the intervention of the Office of the Attorney General on 18^th November 2021and by May 2022, the registrar had not corrected the details compelling her to seek the intervention of the Commission to review the application under section 14 (1)(h) the access to information law on a decision refusing to correct, update or annotate a record of personal information in accordance with an application made under section 13.

The Commission took up the matter with the Director, Civil Registration Service, in line with section 13(1) of the Access to Information which provides;

“At the request of the applicant, a public entity or private body shall within reasonable time, at its own expense, correct, update or annotate any personal information held by it relating to the applicant, which is out of date, inaccurate or incomplete.”

The Civil Registration Department in their letter to the Commission indicated that they advised the Civil Registration Officer, Ruiru, to make the relevant correction in the register of birth of the minor to reflect the correct name of the minor’s father. The mother was therefore requested to visit the Ruiru office to make an official application for correction of particulars in the birth register.

In an email to the Commission on March 20, 2023, she confirmed the correction of the minor’s name.

“The correction of the birth certificate was done and I received the corrected birth certificate on 9^th January 2023. Thank you,” she wrote.