West Pokot Governor Prof. John Lonyangapuo has urged the national government to extend the deadline for Huduma Namba registration exercise to enable pastoralists who had moved to Uganda in search of water and pasture to register. Governor Lonyangapuo, who was in Uganda in the past few days to meet the pastoralists and discuss joint animal vaccination plans between Kenya and Uganda, said he found many Kenyan pastoralists in Uganda who don’t have the knowledge concerning the Huduma Namba registration.
He said due to the situation getting better in the County in terms of rainfall, some pastoralists have started coming back but it will take time for them to reach the County. “It will be hard for them, in the next two or three days, to arrive on time and register,” he said, adding that over 50,000 men moved, not counting women and children.
He also highlighted the problem of birth certificates, which may have hampered registration, especially for children. He urged the government to use different means to ascertain the nationality of children in the County because many of them haven’t acquired birth certificates. He said the centres for collection of birth certificates should be situated in all the sub counties in the County, “How can it be that people can only get the certificates in Kapengurua in the whole of West Pokot yet we have five sub counties? They should take the services to every sub county,” he said.
