Thousands forced to make long trips as several passport offices shut down

Immigration Director Gordon Kihalangwa said closure of some regional offices is necessary to keep up with global standard practice to centralise issuance of passports. (Photo:File/Standard)

Chrysostom Agava was elated when he was invited to attend the Global Alliance for Clean Cook stoves meeting in New York, US.

Not the type that wait until the last minute, Mr Agava travelled from his home in Vihiga County in September to apply for a passport at the Eldoret Immigration office.

He had nothing to worry about since the conference was to take place in November. But shock on him. His big dream to the ‘Big Apple’ has been shattered. “I applied for my passport long before the issuance from the Eldoret office was stopped. But I learnt too late that my passport wasn’t processed over an alleged name typing error. Now I have been told that I must go back to Vihiga County to have the anomaly corrected then follow up the application in Nairobi,” he said.

Agava is not alone. Many people caught unawares by the closure of regional passport issuance services have had it rough. A directive recently issued by the Department of Immigration Services Director Major Gen (rtd) Gordon Kihalangwa, saw the suspension of passport issuance from the Eldoret, Nakuru, Garissa and Embu offices. The move, according to the Immigration department, was necessary to keep up with ‘global standard practice to centralise issuance of passports and the need to safeguard the integrity of the Kenyan passport.

It comes in the wake of security threats posed to the country with claims that the document was ‘easily’ being accessed by elements connected to terror groups.

In the North Rift, applicants are being forced to travel to Kisumu (following closure of the Eldoret office), where many are being referred to the Nairobi office. The story is the same for residents of the Mt Kenya region (which was served by the Embu office) and Garissa.

Laura Mugenda who travelled from Eldoret to Nairobi says she had to wait three days to apply for a passport. “On the first day, I queued till evening but was not successful and the case was similar on the second day, despite arriving at the Nairobi offices as early as 8am,”she said. Across in Northern Kenya, Ahmed Abdullahi’s dream to fulfill an important pillar of Islam by making the pilgrimage to Mecca also came to naught.

“I was optimistic when I sold my cows that at last I was fulfilling one important pillar of my religion- Hajj. But my optimism was turned into anger, after I missed to travel to the Holy city. I travelled to Nairobi, but after getting several appointments that didn’t materialise and with nobody to take me to the immigration office everyday, I gave up and returned home,” he says.

Supkem Garissa branch Chairman Abdullahi Salat, says suspension of the Garissa office disrupted travel plans for about 160 would-be pilgrims to Mecca. The office served an average of 50-120 applicants daily.

In Embu, an Immigration official says the office started issuing passports in 2012, and processed about 900 documents per month.

“Applicants would even travel from as far as Nairobi to get the document at the Embu office since the process was faster,” he says.

A visit to the Embu Immigration office showed the characteristic busyness and movements previously associated with the office has given way to empty corridors. But Regional Immigration Officer Odhiambo Wanda maintains that the office is still operational and provides passport registration forms and explains application procedures to applicants.

“We are doing a lot of work such as intercepting aliens, verifying the validity of foreigners work permits, giving advice on visa application and issuing temporary permits for travel within East Africa, so you cannot say we have closed office,” he said.

Uasin Gishu County deputy Governor Daniel Chemno says the directive has denied locals access to a service that had been devolved.

Senior Researcher and Nairobi office head governance crime and justice division of Institute of Security Studies Peter Aling’o questions the rationale of reverting passport issuance to the Nairobi office, while other services like application of National Identity cards are still available from the regions.

“I think it has become fashionable to find excuses in insecurity. The Immigration department, for instance, is yet to clearly tell us what security threat is posed by devolving passport issuance services,” he says.

The Immigration Department, he says, should deal with administrative and managerial aspects within its ranks by addressing corruption, inefficiency, and poor management of services, instead of withdrawing services from regional offices.

Director, African Centre for Security and Strategic Studies Captain (Rtd) Simiyu Werunga, says the directive could be more about reorganising the department, as opposed to ‘recentralising’ a devolved service.

“He (director) has just been in office for about two months and what he is doing could be a stop gap measure as he takes stock of things. I doubt the suspension of passport issuance in the regions is permanent. One could also see it as an attempt by the new boss to put the right people in the right places in efforts to begin cleaning up the system,” says Werunga.

A window that previously allowed the fast tracking of passport issuance for those travelling abroad on urgent business including medical treatment, was also shut. This changes come in the wake of a reshuffle of about 100 officers at the department, including members of an inter ministerial committee who issue work permits, all viewed as part of a ‘reorganisation’ of the department.

But there are those within the department who view the recent changes differently. “The workload has increased even though some of the officers from the regional offices were redeployed to the passports section. We sometimes have to work late hours to clear the backlog of applications,” says an immigration officer. Attempts to get a comment from the Immigration director were futile, and his Permanent Assistant said he (director) would hold a press conference on unspecified date.

-Additional reporting by Joseph Muchiri and Adow Jubat