Abstract:
A birth certificate is becoming one of the crucial documents a Kenyan must possess. For instance, it is becoming a requirement for standard eight pupils and form four students to produce a birth certificate, in which a copy will be send to Kenya National Examination Council, for them to be registered as candidates. Similarly, most institutions require a birth certificate for identification purposes if one is not an adult also when processing identification card for people over 18 years you have to produce the document. It is also an important document when people are travelling abroad because it shows the country of birth.
A problem normally arises when applicants are many especially prior to registration of national examinations. The office of Registrar of Births is therefore flooded by a multitude of applicants during this period. Apart from long queues, the process is normally slow and expensive since more workers are employed. There is also lack of fairness due to cases of corruption whereby the greedy rich bribe the workers for their applications to be processed immediately. The poor citizen will persevere the long queues only to be told to collect the birth certificates in a month's time or more.The main cause of the above problems is that we still use the manual system in the application process.
Therefore, to maintain smooth and fast application of a birth certificate, there is rapid need for development of an Online BirthCertificate Application System (OBCAS)that can automate and simplify these activities. I have therefore developed OBCAS to cater for this compelling need.
