The Cabinet Secretary (CS) for Interior and National Co-ordination Prof. Kithure Kindiki has confirmed that the historic backlog bedeviling the processing of passports has been resolved through a Rapid Results Initiative (RRI) put in place by the government through the State Department for Immigration.
The CS revealed that he had spent most afternoons and nights at department’s head office in Nyayo House to see resolution through and commended the staff for the good work and complete turnaround of the status quo.
During his occasional ministerial public accountability statements starting on May 31, 2023, Kindiki had acknowledged public outcry over the slow processing and issuance of passports.
He cited the limited investments on equipment and low funding over the years at the State Department as the core of the problems.
“The Immigration Department reimburses revenue to the government at around Sh10 to 20 billion a year but has been under-funded leading to the wear and tear of printing equipment,” he disclosed.
Kindiki also noted that the public decried the issue of corruption which he blamed on the brokers, idlers in cahoots with a few staff members of the department and further promised to rid the department off all the criminal elements.
The CS made these remarks after signing performance contracts with Immigration Principal Secretary Prof. Charles Bitok at Nyayo House Grounds where he highlighted other citizen services offered by the State Department including e-Citizen, Civil Registration, National Registration Bureau re-affirming that every department will offer better services to Kenyans.
He also identified challenges that led to the historic backlog dating back five years that immediately after his public pronouncement on accountability, shot up to 120,000 unprocessed passports due to poor printing, lack of investment and corruption.
Kindiki said it has taken longer to repair printing equipment due to government procedures and the delivery challenge could be attributed to the department being able to deliver, for example, 800 passports out of the 4000 to 4500 processed ones.
“Another challenge due to expedited printing is the piling of already printed passports lying at the post office waiting for collection,” added Kindiki.
The CS assured that the department would streamline the collection of passports and order for new printers that would triple and subsequently quadruple production maintaining that the current day and night shift would still remain operational to achieve this.
Further, he declared that the printing areas would be secured from access by members of the public and the processing areas would be trimmed to short queues until large banking halls are secured.
“We will invest in better customer care services by engaging most of the staff including NYS, Police Service to ensure that no one spends more than half an hour without being serviced,” stated Kindiki, revealing that cases of emergencies such as student visas, medical situation would be processed within 24 hours.
While cautioning that the department would not be able to immediately audit the entire system to eliminate all the backlog, the CS revealed that the commencement of RRI for the collection of passports from the period of notice Monday, September 25 lasting 30 days would ensure that all the 87,574 passports in government’s possession are duly collected.
He broke down the processed passports according to regions saying 36,170 passports were due to be collected at the head office at Nyayo House in Nairobi, 10, 409 in Embu, 9,938 in Eldoret, 9,515 in Kisumu, 8,023 in Nakuru, 7,971 in Kisii and 5,424 in Mombasa.
Kindiki stressed that every Wednesday of the subsequent weeks starting from the period of notice, the government would publicize in the media, department website and portal and all its social media handles the names of applicants who must collect their passport as indicated by the office, day, and time.
“We will apply Section 31 of the Citizenship and Immigration Act in disposing off documents and Section 5 of Disposal of Uncollected Goods Act laws of Kenya and the best practices in the disposal of goods after expiry of the time period upon which uncollected passports will be disposed of and the applicant required to apply again and pay a fine for wastage,” warned the CS.
He affirmed that the department, through the signed performance contracts, would be able to steady the commitment of the period of passport release unless security issues arise adding that the mission is to reduce the waiting time from 7 to 3 days.
By Michael Omondi
