Kampala, Uganda | RONALD MUSOKE | “Before I had my twins in 2014, I used to go for antenatal care at Mulago National Referral Hospital, and that is where I gave birth from. However, as a first-time mother, I was not aware of the processing of birth certificates then. It took me three years to realise that I have to process these documents as early as possible.
The reason I didn’t have that at the back of my mind is because the birth certificate thing was not a thing of our generation; our parents never processed them. Perhaps it was not even that important by then, like we now have the National Identification and Registration Authority (NIRA). I, for instance, got my own birth certificate when I was going to sit for either primary seven or senior four and it was a requirement by the school.
So, it wasn’t something I had to think about quickly. It’s after three years when my children were going to start kindergarten that I realized I had to get birth certificates for them. It was not something simple, because now I had to look for the discharge form from the hospital.
So, I got the discharge form and I went back to Mulago Hospital. I then went to the records department. It was a long process because it had taken three years for me to initiate the process.
I filled in a form and then I was told to wait for three weeks for the file to be retrieved. I followed-up to ensure that my file is retrieved so they process the birth notification which is different from the dischar.