Birth, death and marriage certificates in Kenya
Birth and death certificates, marriage certificates and changing your name. Answers come from Civil Registration Services and the State Law Office.
Most asked
- Get a birth certificate (including late registration)
- Get a death certificate (including late registration of a death)
- Get married at the Registrar and get a marriage certificate (marriage by notice)
- Get a burial permit after a death
- Adopt a child in Kenya
- Apply for a protection order against domestic violence
- Apply for child maintenance or custody at the Children's Court
- Apply for succession after a death (letters of administration or grant of probate)
All 94, A to Z
- Adopt a child in Kenya
- Age of consent in Kenya
- Apply for a protection order against domestic violence
- Apply for child maintenance or custody at the Children's Court
- Apply for succession after a death (letters of administration or grant of probate)
- Apply to court for legal guardianship of a child
- Are prenuptial agreements valid in Kenya?
- Are you liable for your spouse's debts?
- At what age are you an adult in Kenya?
- Can a child be denied inheritance for being a girl or born outside marriage?
- Can a court order a DNA test to prove who a child's father is?
- Can a court order your husband or wife to pay you maintenance?
- Can a step-parent be ordered to support a stepchild?
- Can a victim of domestic violence get compensation?
- Can a widow be forced to be inherited or to remarry in the family?
- Can a widow or widower sell estate property during a life interest?
- Can a witness inherit under a will, and does marriage cancel a will?
- Can funeral costs be paid from the dead person's estate?
- Can one parent take a child abroad without the other's consent?
- Can someone married in church or at the Registrar marry a second wife?
- Can the father's name go on the birth certificate if we are not married?
- Can unmarried parents sign a parenting plan?
- Can you get a free lawyer for a family case?
- Can you legally separate without divorcing?
- Can you sue someone who backed out of a promise to marry you?
- Change your name by deed poll
- Check whether a succession case has been filed for an estate
- Civil registration (births and deaths) offices: where to find one
- Correct an error on a birth certificate
- Do both parents have equal rights and duties over a child?
- Do you inherit a dead relative's debts?
- Does a child born before the parents marry become legitimate when they marry?
- Does a married woman have the same property rights as her husband?
- File for divorce (dissolution of marriage)
- Get a birth certificate (including late registration)
- Get a burial permit after a death
- Get a Certificate of No Impediment to marry abroad
- Get a certified copy of a marriage certificate, or register a customary marriage
- Get a death certificate (including late registration of a death)
- Get a licence to conduct marriages as a minister of faith, and buy marriage books
- Get free legal aid from the National Legal Aid Service (NLAS)
- Get help for gender-based violence (GBV helpline 1195)
- Get married at the Registrar and get a marriage certificate (marriage by notice)
- Get the Public Trustee to handle a deceased person's estate
- How an estate is shared when the deceased had more than one wife
- How is property shared between a husband and wife?
- Is dowry (ruracio) required for a customary marriage?
- Is family land in some counties inherited by custom?
- Is incest a crime in Kenya?
- Is it a crime to force someone into marriage?
- Is it a crime to marry off a girl, cut her or do virginity testing?
- Is it legal to pay for a child or give away a baby informally?
- Is living together (come-we-stay) a legal marriage?
- Is sex without consent within marriage a crime?
- Kenya's public holidays and how extra ones are declared
- Left out of a will or given too little: asking the court for a share
- Marry by special licence (without the 21-day notice)
- Next of kin in Kenya: what it means and what rights it gives
- Object to a succession cause (objection, caveat or protest)
- Object to an intended marriage
- Pay a court fine or cash bail, and get cash bail refunded
- Publish a notice in the Kenya Gazette
- Register a customary marriage
- Register a marriage that took place outside Kenya
- Register an adoption and get a new birth certificate for an adopted child
- Register an existing Hindu marriage under the Marriage Act
- Register the birth of a Kenyan child born abroad
- Register the death of a Kenyan who died abroad and bring the body home
- Replace a lost death certificate or get another copy
- Replace a lost or damaged birth certificate (get a new copy)
- Report a crime or emergency to the police
- Report child abuse or neglect (Child Helpline 116)
- Request a government post-mortem (forensic pathology services)
- Swear an affidavit before a Commissioner for Oaths or magistrate
- Take a Muslim marriage, divorce or inheritance case to the Kadhi's Court
- The other parent is blocking me from seeing my child: what the law says
- Transport a body out of Kenya for burial
- Types of marriage in Kenya under the Marriage Act 2014
- Verify that a birth or death certificate is genuine
- What counts as domestic violence under the law
- What happens if a parent does not pay court-ordered child maintenance?
- What human trafficking is and the punishment
- What makes a will valid
- What to do if you find an abandoned baby
- When an administrator misuses or hides the estate
- Who becomes a child's guardian if a parent dies?
- Who can marry in Kenya and the legal age
- Who counts as a dependant who can claim from an estate?
- Who inherits when a parent dies without a will and leaves only children?
- Who inherits when someone dies without a will and leaves a spouse but no children?
- Who inherits when someone dies without a will, a spouse or children?
- Who you can't marry, and when a marriage can be annulled
- Will a trafficking victim be arrested for being in Kenya illegally?
- Your rights as a survivor of sexual violence