NAIROBI Kenya August 28 -The Directorate of Immigration Services has introduced a raft of measures to improve the processing of Kenyan passports.
Beginning this week, staff will be increased, other counters will also be set aside for emergency cases, and day and night shifts shall be introduced from Monday to Sunday.
The acting Director General of Immigration Services Evelyn Cheluget on Monday August 28 said applications will now be received from 7am to 8.30 pm.
She further revealed that other remedies will include acquiring new booklets, repairing and purchasing new machines that will allow for 24/7 passport printing and that some officers will be deployed abroad
Addressing immigration officers at Nyayo House, Cheluget expressed optimism that the changes will bolster the processing and issuance of travel documents and effectively address the long-standing delays.
“We are working hard, the passport section has been working on shifts, we have dedicated counters for urgent cases and all regional heads to boost staff in the urgent counters,” she said.
This comes amid a backlog that has made Kenyans question why the Immigration Department takes ages to process passports, a process that should take 10 to 15 days.
The Directorate of Immigration Services on Friday defended itself, noting that in the period between July 13 and August 2023, Nyayo House printed 96,310 passports.
Out of these 53,750 were printed by personnel working the day shift, while the remaining 42,560 were processed during the night shifts.
On August 24, Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki attributed delays in processing of passports to massive corruption at Nyayo House.
The CS, while appearing before the Regional Integration Committee at Parliament Buildings, admitted that corrupt officials at the Directorate of Immigration were taking bribes for government services offered at no cost.
“I have received credible intelligence that could suggest that part of our problem in the processing of passports is a corruption problem. There are good officers who are there serving the country patriotically but there are others collecting bribes and harassing the people of Kenya to get services that they should be getting for free,” the CS told the committee members.
Kindiki, however, assured the MPs that efforts are underway to clean up the mess at the immigration offices, adding that if need be the authorities will seal Nyayo House and declare it a crime scene.
“I will clean up Nyayo House once and for all. If need be we will seal off Nyayo house and declare it a scene of crime. How do Kenyans cue from 6am? It won’t be business as usual,” he vowed.
There have been rising complaints of delays in processing of passports recently with the immigration department attributing the backlog to a faulty printer.
The immigration department said in May that one of its machines that prints the 34, 50 and 66-page booklets had broken down, affecting many Kenyans seeking to travel abroad.
According to the CS, the Department of Immigration and Citizen Services processes approximately 5,000 passports daily and that the passport backlog currently stands at 58,000.
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