ADVOKS GLOBAL · KENYA
Merchant Shipping Act
368. Returns of births and deaths
Edition: 2023-12-11 · In force
368. Returns of births and deaths
(1)The Cabinet Secretary may make regulations under the following provisions of this section in relation to births and deaths in the circumstances specified in those provisions.(2)Regulations under this section may require the master of any Kenyan ship to make a return to the Registrar of Seafarers or proper officer of the—(a)birth or death of any person occurring in the ship; and(b)death of any person employed in the ship, wherever occurring outside Kenya,and to notify any such death to such person (if any) as the deceased may have named to him as his next of kin.(3)Regulations under this section may require the master of any ship not registered in Kenya which calls at a port in Kenya in the course of or at the end of a voyage to make a return to the Director-General of any birth or death of a Kenyan citizen which has occurred in the ship during the voyage.(4)Regulations under this section may require the Director-General to record such information as may be specified in the regulations about such a death as is referred to in subsection (2) in a case where—(a)it appears to him that the master of the ship cannot perform his duty under that subsection because he has himself died or is incapacitated or missing; and(b)any of the circumstances specified in subsection (5) exist.(5)The circumstances mentioned in subsection (4)(b) are that the—(a)death in question has been the subject of—(i)an inquest held by a court; or(ii)an inquiry held in accordance with section 425 and the findings of the inquiry include a finding that the death occurred;(b)deceased’s body has been the subject of a post-mortem examination and in consequence the Attorney-General is satisfied that an inquest is unnecessary.(6)Regulations under this section may require the Director-General to send a certified copy of any return or record made thereunder to the Registrar of Births and Deaths.(7)The Registrar of Births and Deaths to whom any such certified copies are sent—(a)shall record the information contained therein in the marine register; and(b)may record in the marine register such additional information as appears to him desirable for the purpose of ensuring the completeness and correctness of the register,and the law relating to the registration of births and deaths in Kenya shall have effect as if the marine register were a register of births (other than stillbirths) or deaths or certified copies of entries in such a register had been transmitted to the Registrar of Births and Deaths in accordance with that law.(8)Regulations under this section may make a contravention of any provision thereof an offence punishable, upon conviction, with a fine not exceeding three hundred thousand shillings or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years, or to both such fine and imprisonment.(9)Regulations under this section may contain provisions authorising the registration of the following births and deaths occurring outside Kenya, in circumstances where no return is required to be made under the preceding provisions of this section—(a)any birth or death of a Kenyan citizen which occurs in a ship not registered in Kenya;(b)any death of any such citizen who has been employed in a ship not registered in Kenya which occurs elsewhere than in the ship; and(c)any death of a person who has been employed in a Kenyan ship which occurs elsewhere than in the ship.(10)References in this section to deaths occurring in a ship include references to deaths occurring in a ship’s boat.