Nairobi — Over 60,000 applicants who have been waiting for Kenyan passports will now receive them within three weeks.
Immigration and Citizen Services Principal Secretary Prof. Julius Bitok said the backlog will be cleared within 21 days after the government received over 100,000 passport blank booklets.
“It will take you 21 days to receive your passport if you apply on the e-Citizen platform,” the PS said.
Latest records from the Immigration Department reveal that 63,265 passports applications are pending issuance, the bulk of them being the popular 34-page A-series.
The backlog has been attributed to delays in the supply of booklets and a surge in the demand for passports, especially by Kenyans seeking jobs outside the country and students enrolling in foreign institutions.
PS Bitok said the Government is in talks with potential investors for the possibility of
investing in local manufacturing of passports for faster and comparatively cheaper supplies.
“We’re in talks with investors for Public-Private Partnerships (PPT) so that we can
manufacture and print these documents here in Kenya.”
With the delivery, the production of 15,358 A series, 10,045 and 37,810 B and C series passports respectively that have been queued due to booklets shortage will now be cleared.
Bitok said that the new stock will adequately cover all passport series and there is
therefore no need for applicants to revise their preferred choices.
He urged more Kenyans to take advantage of the digitization of government services and apply for passports through the e-Citizen online platform.