Nairobi Primary gazetted as marriage registration centre
What you need to know:
- The government has officially launched Nairobi Primary School as a gazetted marriage registration centre.
- Move aimed at easing the backlog caused in its existing marriage offices due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
- School to have two marriage points with two registrars performing 20 marriages per day.
- Centre will handle civil Christian, Hindu, Muslim and customary marriages.
The government has officially launched Nairobi Primary School as a gazetted marriage registration centre.
The move by the Office of the Attorney General (AG) is aimed at easing the backlog caused in its existing marriage offices due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
State Law Office Chief Administrative Secretary (CAS) Ms Winnie Guchu officially launched the new marriage registration centre on Wednesday.
Ms Guchu said the launch of the centre would not only ease the interruption of services caused by the pandemic but would also ensure crowd control in compliance with Ministry of Health guidelines on social distancing.
Three months
The venue has been gazetted vide Legal Notice No. 6597 dated September 4, 2020 and is to serve as a marriage registration area for three months from September to November.
As a marriage registration area, the school shall have two marriage points with two registrars performing 20 marriages per day, bringing the total to 60 marriages each week.
All marriages will be officiated in open air to reduce the risk of coronavirus exposure between officers from the AG's office and members of the public.
To ensure customer satisfaction, the marriage area shall have two photo-shoot areas, four signage points, flowers, hand washing stations, security officers for crowd control, changing rooms and waiting areas among other facilities.
Marriage Registrar Ms Loyce Bett (left) weds Stanislaw Zielonka and Christine Njeri Mbugi who were among the first couples to wed on the day of the launch of Nairobi Primary School as a marriage registration on September 16, 2020.
The centre will handle civil Christian, Hindu, Muslim and customary marriages.
The CAS urged those married through customary rituals to take advantage of the law and register their unions with the Registrar of Marriages.
The office on July 10, launched an online platform under oag.ecitizen.go.ke for registration of marriages. Since its launch, there has been an upsurge in the number of marriage applications.
In May, the AG’s office temporarily suspended marriage services to curb the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic.
In a statement to newsrooms, Registrar General Mary Njuya stated that the services were being halted to allow the department to develop a strategy on handling the high number of clients in compliance with Ministry of Health guidelines on preventing the spread of corona virus.
Covid-19
The move, she said, was occasioned by an upsurge of people seeking marriage-related services, in what posed a serious threat of the spread of Covid -19 because of social distancing at Sheria House.
The Registrar General said the high numbers following the partial re-opening that went against the Ministry of Health’s guidelines on Covid-19.
The announcement came as a blow to couples whose marriage plans had been interfered with by the pandemic.
With the pandemic affecting most operations in the country, some couples have opted to conduct their weddings without the physical presence of their loved ones, while others opted to tie the knot at Sheria House.
