A visit to the Registrar

Well it’s good to see beaurocracy in Kenya is alive and well!

We went to get our marriage license today – usually you need to give 21 days notice but for foreign people you can get a special exception and it only takes three days.

We arrived at the Government buildings and were made to wait in a queue on a C-shaped bench. Every time someone was called up we all shuffled round a little bit. Finally we got to the front and while Milka, the rep from Sarova registered at the counter, we were shepherded through the entrance to the building, only to be asked on the other side what we were doing there without having registered!

Anyway, up we went to the second floor and went into room 210 to collect a form. We were instructed then, to go to the next room along, room 209, to fill it in. Why this couldn’t have been done in the original room or even in one of the chairs in the corridor, I’m not sure. It wasn’t a big room and we didn’t even talk to anyone ‘official’ while we were in there. Perhaps it was just in case you didn’t bring your own pen. You had to specify your status (Widowed, Divorced, Bachelor, and wait for it, Spinster) on the form. It was a proud moment(!)

Then we were sent downstairs to have the form signed. The old guy downstairs was clearly not usually responsible for marriages didn’t worry about checking our original documents, he just signed the form and sent us on our way, back up to room 209. We had to queue up again to pay our fee (10,050 KSH for non resident couples, 200 KSH for Kenyans!) and when we eventually got to the front, the guy looked at our form and said “It needs to say ‘Approved’ followed by today’s date in the top left hand corner.” Not that there was a particular space for that so how were we supposed to know?! So back Milka traipsed to the room downstairs to ask the man who couldn’t care less to write ‘Approved’ on our form. And back we went to room 209 which was starting to feel really familiar. Once our fee had been paid and the documents handed in, we were given a reciept and told to report back to room 210 to find out when we could collect it.

The lady in room 210, who was not unlike Mma Makutsi with her typewriter, then duly informed us that there was only one person in the office authorised to sign our license and they were on holiday so we could collect our license on Monday. Even when we explained the wedding was on Tuesday and we were leaving Nairobi on Sunday, nothing doing.  Someone else would have been able to sign it on the official person’s behalf but only if we planned to get married this week…………

So Milka is going to have to go collect it on Monday and email it through to the Mara. Fingers crossed it all works out!!