In Kenya, the ease of getting identification documents such as birth certificates, identity cards and passports relies heavily on the presence and participation of a father in his children’s lives.
Many women often find themselves not only with the burden of child-rearing, but also facing discrimination when they seek important documents for their children.
According to President Uhuru, Huduma number moves the country from a manual, scattered and cumbersome data management regime to an organised digital service delivery platform but for women raising their children alone, it is still a nightmare to have them registered.
However, it is now emerging that when a father walks out of a relationship and leaves his partner and the children that they had behind, not only is he denying his offspring the chance to grow up with two parents, but he is also making it difficult for the mother to access critical services and documents for their children.
Ms Enricah Dulo, a family lawyer, says the biggest problem facing single mothers is lack of knowledge of the law and waiting until the last minute to seek legal redress.
She said that parents seek legal advice when they are just about to travel, which is not enough time to get the documents they need.
But it is not all doom and gloom for mothers who find themselves raising their children alone.
They have the option of leaving the fathers out of their children’s birth certificates and passports.
If the father was not around when a birth certificate was taken, then his details can be left out in that and future documents.
According to lawyer Miriam Wachira, in case an absentee father refuses to give his documents for registration of his child’s passport and his name already appears in the birth certificate, the mother can go to court and file an application to compel him to provide his documents.
“The only problem with that is that whenever she wants to travel out of the country with the child, she will have to go to the father for consent, which he might refuse to give,” Ms Wachira says.
Julie Lisa Okech had dreams of getting married to her child’s father, with whom she had a relationship for seven years before things went south.
“Our son had a birth certificate with his father’s name on it. In retrospect, I wish I had left that part blank or wrote my father’s name instead,” Ms Okech says.
They parted ways in 2016 before she embarked on getting a passport for their son.
She filled out the forms online through the E-citizen platform, paid the full amount and got all the relevant documents certified in readiness to present them to the immigration department.
She asked her former boyfriend a copy of his ID, which is a requirement for the process.
“When I asked for the ID, he said that he had lost it and would replace it soon. At that point we were not talking much so a lot of time went by before I could ask again.
“He finally gave me the copy of the document about a year later. When I went to check to see if I could finish the application process, I found that the time-frame had already lapsed. Imagine, Sh6,500 went just like that. I haven’t even thought about applying again,” Ms Okech says.
President Kenyatta lauded the progress of registration recorded in the country, saying that centres have so far posted remarkable result over the past 16 days.
While urging Kenyans to stop worrying about the safety of their data, the Head of state announced that 11 million people have so far acquired the number.