Speaking in an exclusive interview with the ‘Sunday News’ here on Friday, the Registration, Insolvency and Trusteeship Agency (RITA) Acting Chief Executive Officer, Ms Emmy Huddson said the registration of deaths will now be done as soon as they occur, giving almost equal weight to births.
According to her, statistics of deaths available with RITA were discouraging; forcing the state to ignite a special programme to make sure the situation was improved. “We are moving on well with under five birth registration, but we are equally determined to scale up more programmes on other registrations like deaths, wills, divorces and marriages,” she said.
Of late according to official statistics, records available with the Agency indicate as at this year 481,160 deaths were recorded against 468,510 recorded last year, 456,193 recorded in 2016 and 410,078 registered in 2012, far behind the reality. Ms Huddson said there were multiple advantages in registering deaths, the crucial one being for the government to get reliable statistics of the deaths of its citizens and even non citizens and the reasons behind their demise for policy action.
For individuals, the Acting CEO said death registration matters a lot during inheritance cases when the court wants to rule out the matter with clear reason on what actually caused the death of the man whose relatives want to take over his or her properties. If all goes well, hinted Ms Huddson, the pilot programme on death registration will be launched before end of this financial year, thanks to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), which has provided over 100m/- for the task.
Meanwhile, the Simiyu region has expressed its readiness in participating in under five birth registration initiative set for launching next month in Bariadi district. Simiyu Regional Commissioner (RC), Mr Antony Mtaka said here on Friday that his region was ready to host an event which will see about 350,000 children under five years old being registered and issued with birth certificates.
Along with Simiyu, another region to kick start the programme is Mara with the two joining Geita, Iringa, Lindi, Mbeya, Mtwara, Mwanza, Njombe, Shinyanga and Songwe regions which launched the programme before.
Since the registration programme started in 2013, impressive achievement has been recorded, including boosting the national birth registration status from 16 per cent to 25 per cent, with more than 2 million children being issued with certificates so far. Mr Mtaka said the birth registration was important since it helps in nabbing foreigners who might be illegally enjoying the rights of the nationals using illegal documents, among others.