It is now official that Kenyans will have to pay more to access key documents such as birth and death certificates after the government ratified key fee revisions upwards.
The development comes after the government, through the State Department of Immigration and Citizen Services, gazetted the new fees that include an upward revision of the registration of birth and death certificates from Ksh50 to Ksh200 in a Kenya Gazette supplement.
According to the notice, late registration for birth and death certificates will attract a service fee of Ksh500, up from the previous Ksh150.
The government will also charge Kenyans an additional Ksh910 for the loss of a birth certificate after the fee was increased to Ksh1,000 from the previous Ksh90.
If you wish to amend the same documents in case of errors such as missing letters or typos, you will be charged a total of Ksh1,000 up from the previous rate of Ksh130.
Shockingly, Kenyans living in the diaspora will be required to pay Ksh19,000 which is (USD15O) at the current exchange rates for the same service.
Additionally, those in the diaspora will pay Ksh1,000 for registration of a birth or death that will occur outside Kenyan borders.
The announcement came after the government officially embarked on its previous decision to increase fees for a raft of services after reversing the same at the beginning of this year to give room for public participation.
Consequently, authenticating the seal of the principal registrar will now cost you Ksh500, with the same service costing Ksh12,950(USD100) when provided to a foreign mission in Kenya.
The government has been keen on raising the fees across the immigration and civil registration services with passport and visa fees having been increased in 2023.
In a special gazette notice released by the then Minister for Interior Kithure Kindiki, the government announced that the fee for an ordinary 66-page passport had been increased from Ksh7,500 to Ksh12,000.
Kindiki also announced that the fees for an ordinary 34-page passport had been hiked from Ksh4,500 to Ksh7,500.
The fee for a diplomatic 50-page document was also revised from Ksh7,500 to Ksh15,000 while the fee for an ordinary 50-page document went up from Ksh7,500 to Ksh9,500.
Conversely, the cost of replacing a lost passport was increased from Ksh12,000 to Ksh20,000 while the cost of replacing a mutilated passport was increased from Ksh10,000 to Ksh20,000.
The government also increased the fees for single journey visas by doubling the figures from Ksh7,572 to Ksh15,145 while the fee for a multiple journey was hiked from Ksh15,145 to Ksh75,725.
