North Eastern Regional Commissioner John Otieno has announced that Garissa regional immigration office will be ready for launch in the next two weeks.
Initially the office was set to be opened on July 1st last year, but the government had a challenge in getting an office space before settling on the old Garissa High Court offices where the courts had already moved to their new building.
Renovations at the facility are currently at 95 per cent completion, with most of the office arrangements already in place including chairs, computers, CCTV security system and security office.
Speaking after leading his regional team in an inspection tour for several projects under the national government in Garissa County, Otieno said that the office will help the area citizens who want to access passport services by cutting down the costs and time having to travel to Nairobi.
“The government is keen to reopen the Immigration office in Garissa, which was closed down some time back and in two weeks, the office will be ready for use,” Otieno said.
The Garissa Immigration offices were shut in 2014 following a wave of terror attacks in the region and parts of the country. The state of insecurity tipped Maj-Gen (Rtd) Gordon Kihalangwa, the former immigration boss, to order the closure.
The abrupt closure affected at least 400 pilgrims from the region who were to fly to Mecca, Saudi Arabia and 300 soldiers from Kenya and Sierra Leone who were to be deployed to Somalia then.
At the same time, the Regional commissioner called out a section of government contractors for poor workmanship and others for intentionally delaying completion of government projects to gain variation fees.
He urged government officials supervising government projects to be keen with their work so that contractors can deliver good works by ensuring mistakes are corrected promptly.
“Some contractors have not done a good job and I want to take this opportunity to caution them to always do a good job so that Kenyans can get value for Money,” Otieno said.
“Situations where projects are delayed intentionally for purposes of variation, hence increasing the costs for the projects does not sit well for the government. The intention of the government is for the projects to be completed in time so that the public can benefit,” he added.
By Erick Kyalo
