You will wait longer for your passport, Immigration says

Immigration and Citizen Services PS Julius Bitok. [Edward Kiplimo, Standard]

Kenyans will have to wait even longer to apply and collect their passports.

The Immigration Department on Tuesday, April 30 notified members of the public that they are currently experiencing challenges with processing the crucial documents.

"We regret to inform our clients that we are currently experiencing a downtime that has affected our normal passport application receiving and collection services," the department said.

Applicants who are directly affected will be provided with alternative dates soon.

"Our engineers are working to resolve the issue. We apologize for the inconvenience caused."

This comes days after Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki announced that Nyayo House had acquired two new passport printing machines to clear the backlog that has carried on for months.

According to Kindiki, the backlog of 724,000 passports had been cleared as of March 11, 2023.

"Effective May 1, 2024, all passport applications will be processed within 21 days from the date of application. The period will reduce gradually to 7 days from August 1 and then to three days from September 1, 2024," he said.