Government to open new passport office in Kericho by January

Immigration and Citizen Services PS Julius Bitok addressing the media in Nairobi on October 26, 2023. [Denis Kibuchi, Standard]

The Government is set to open a new passport office in Kericho town by January next year to aid in reducing the backlog. 

Immigration and Citizen Services Principal Secretary Julius Bitok announced that the new office will help serve residents of the South Rift region.

The office will be located at Ardhi House in Kericho, to ease the workload burden on the Eldoret and Kisumu passport processing offices.

The new office adds to other passport processing centers in Nairobi, Mombasa, Kisumu, Eldoret, Kisii Nakuru, and Embu Counties. 

Passport applications in the country have been marred by corruption and inefficiencies, following several complaints by Kenyans.

The Immigration Department has been faced with challenges at the Nyayo House including failed printers leading to an increase in backlog.

Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki however promised to get rid of the cartels infiltrating the centres for the document processing.

"I will clean up Nyayo House once and for all. We will seal off Nyayo House and name it a crime scene.  It won’t be business as usual. We must clean up Nyayo House," Kindiki is quoted as saying. 

Last month, members of parliament from the Departmental Committee on Administration and Security recommended that the Immigration office retain a portion of the revenue generated by the directorate to fund expenses needed in the process.

“The ongoing procurement of additional two printers will boost the printing capacity to over 5,000 passports thereby making it possible to issue the document within seven days on application,” MP Gabriel Tongoyo noted.