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Here is why you’ll have to wait longer for that new passport

By Winnie Onyando November 28th, 2022 1 min read

Kenyans seeking news passports will have to wait longer to receive the document after the immigration department said they are short of passport booklets.

Immigration and Citizen Services Director-General Alexander Muteshi said that they are in urgent need of Sh150 million to purchase the booklets for printing passports.

“We are appealing to Senate committee to help push the National Treasury to release the funds so that critical service delivery can be offered,” Mr Muteshi said.

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The department wants the National Treasury to allocate Sh300 million to digitise all its processes and services but only half of the amount has been disbursed.

Mr Muteshi said despite the department collecting about Sh12billion annually in revenue, they are cash-starved and do not even have funds to purchase new printers as well as pay its staff.

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He however noted that if they can buy modern printers the department will be able to print at least 10,000 passports daily, which will significantly reduce the backlog.

“If we buy new and modern printers, we will be able to reduce the backlog by printing 10,000 passports per day. But as it stands now, we are only able to print 1,500 passports a day using the old printers,” he said.

As of last month, approximately 1.6 million Kenyans had acquired the new East African Community (EAC) biometric e-passport.

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