Over 40,000 passport backlog to be cleared within 10 days – Kithure Kindiki
Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki has promised to clear the backlog of more than 40,000 unprocessed passports within 10 days. Prof Kindiki made the statement on Friday during a meeting with senior officers from the Immigration Department at Nyayo House.
The meeting was to review the implementation of operational and policy reforms to resolve the delayed processing of passports.
“The 10-day countdown to clear the historical backlog of pending 40,000 plus passport applications is on. Deploying day and night shifts to facilitate full capacity printing of passports, procurement of modern printing equipment, and recruitment of additional immigration officers will help us resolve the systemic challenges that have hampered service delivery,” Prof Kindiki said.
Also read: DCI promises to clear backlog of unprocessed police clearance certificates
Still giving an assessment of the situation at Nyayo House, Prof Kindiki tweeted that the queues are now shorter and the movement was faster.
“The tremendous improvement is a result of operational reforms initiated in the last three weeks. Immigration officers are working round the clock to clear the backlog and eventually ensure all future applications are processed without delay,” he said.
Also read: CS Mvurya’s daughter sues for negligence, earning Sh4,500 salary
Last week, Prof Kindiki disclosed that there was a backlog of 58,000 passport applications. To address this issue, the Department of Immigration and Citizen Services has been diligently processing around 5,000 passports on a daily basis.
The CS also outlined forthcoming plans to expedite the passport issuance process. Specifically, there are efforts underway to reduce the standard issuance time to just 7 days. Furthermore, as part of a future initiative, the goal is to slash this processing time to a remarkable 3 days.
In case of an emergency, there are plans to expedite passport services, ensuring that individuals can obtain their passports within a mere 24 hours when urgent situations arise.