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| CS for Interior Kithure Kindiki |
The dedicated passport delivery week by the Department of Immigration services entered day two on Tuesday.
With 39,500 passports uncollected, Immigration set aside May 13, to Saturday, May 18, as a special week to fast-track passport delivery in all application centres.
The exercise is underway in Nairobi, Mombasa, Kisumu, Eldoret, Embu, Nakuru, Kisii and Kericho.
Interior CS Kithure Kindiki said all 724,000 pending passports that had accumulated between June 2021 and March 2024 have been printed, and 684,500 of them have already been collected by their holders.
“It took a bit of time to get exchequer funding, pay pending supplier debts, dismantle the corruption cartels, and acquire and install modern, high-capacity printing equipment,” the CS said.
“What remains now is to fastrack the collection of 39,500 ready but uncollected passports from the backlog lot, sustaining the production and delivery systems to ensure that the reform program prevails in the long term and creating system efficiency in the archival, record management, registry and Information Technology management” he added.
Going forward, Kindiki said all new applicants will receive their passports within 21 days from the date of application, while urgent cases will receive theirs immediately.
Effective August 1, 2024, the waiting period will be reduced to 7 days and further to 3 days effective November 1, 2024.
By Margaret Kalekye