Kenyans applying for passports may soon be receiving the travel document within three days if a recommendation by Members of Parliament (MPs) sails through.
The MPs through the National Assembly’s Committee on National Administration and Internal Security on Wednesday, May 15, 2024, made the recommendation for Kenyans to receive passports within three days of submitting their application.
The legislators made this recommendation during the presentation of the State Department for Immigration and Citizen Services’ budget estimates for the 2024/25 Financial Year and supplementary estimates for FY 2023/24.
As such, they urged the government to open more Immigration offices across the country to make it easier to acquire passports.
In their argument, the MPs noted that currently, many applicants are forced to make long and costly distances to access Nyayo House or any of the eight regional Immigration offices.
“With adequate resourcing, targeting a maximum of three days for applicants to be issued with passports is realistic…This should be feasible, especially with the opening of more offices in other parts of the country,” said Narok West MP Gabriel Tongoyo.
MPs Laud Government
However, the legislators lauded the government for introducing reforms that have improved the efficiency of the Directorate of Immigration.
They pointed out that the long queues witnessed at Nyayo House have been dealt with by the Immigration Department.
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“We were used to seeing long queues of people at Nyayo House even after 5 PM on working days, but we note that nowadays, those scenes are gone,” said Mandera East MP Hussein Abdirahman.
Immigration PS Julius Bitok, while making the presentation of the report revealed that the Department has not been allocated with requested funds.
Bitok pointed out that his department has been allocated Ksh15.151 billion instead of the Ksh15.873 billion it requested in the Budget Policy Statement.
Funds Received by Immigration Department
According to the PS, Ksh10.145B Of the amount will be spent on the recurrent budget, while Ksh5.091 billion will be committed to development projects.
Under the second Supplementary estimates for FY 2023/2024, the State Department’s revised budget was Ksh12.633 B with the bulk of the amount, Ksh9.136B, going to the recurrent budget.
PS Bitok told the MPs that the department had successfully cleared the backlog of around 700,000 passports and invested heavily in equipment and technology using funds obtained as Appropriation-in-Aid from Immigration and other services.
“With Parliament’s support, we have dealt with the issue of passport backlog and instituted important reforms, including creating two banking halls, buying two printers, and increasing personnel,” said Bitok.
Also Read: Kindiki Gives Way Foward on Collection of Final Batch of 45,000 Passports
PS Bitok also cited the digitization of over 16,000 government services on eCitizen and the introduction of the visa-free entry regime in January and the Electronic Travel Authorization (eTA) that has processed over 500,000 visitors to Kenya among the Department’s milestones.
The PS appealed for more funding to roll out the newly introduced digital ID, the Maisha Card and its supporting infrastructure, and the Shirika Plan that proposes moving refugees out of camps by integrating them with host communities.
CS Kindiki on Application of Passports
Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki and the PS had previously promised to introduce a 7-day maximum waiting time for passport applications.
CS Kindiki in a statement on May 13 had announced that all 724,000 passports that were part of the historical backlog that had accumulated between June 2021 and March 2024 have been printed with 684,500 of them already 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.
What remains now is to fast-track 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,” said Kindiki.
Kindiki further announced that all new applicants will receive their passports within 21 days from the date of application, while urgent cases will receive theirs immediately.
The CS also disclosed plans to have the waiting period will be reduced to 7 days effective August 1, 2024, and further to 3 days effective November 1, 2024.
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