Over 70,000 passports ready for collection- Immigration PS Bitok

Immigration and Citizens Services PS Julius Bitok. [Denish Ochieng, Standard]

More than 70,000 passports are ready for collection at Immigration centres across the country, Immigration Principal Secretary Julius Bitok has said.

In a statement on Saturday, October 21, Bitok said the department has been able to accelerate the process of clearing the backlog, through the Rapid Results Initiative (RRI).

“Currently, 70,629 passports are ready for collection across the country. Applicants are encouraged to monitor the status of their passports on e-Citizen portal and on the Directorate of Immigration official communication channels,” said Bitok.

Additionally, the PS said that they have printed some 43,742 new passports since the launch of RRI on September 25.

This in return has increased the number of passports available for collection to 131,196.

In Nairobi, 52,160 are available for collection while in Mombasa and Kisumu 13,594 and 15,287 passports are ready to be collected respectively.

In their branch in Nakuru County, 11,036 passports are available while 12,289 in Eldoret, 15,476 in Embu and Kisii, 11,354.

So far, 60,567 passports have already been collected countrywide.

“Every Wednesday, during the RRI period, a list scheduling the collection of passports the following week is posted on the Immigration Official X account.”

Bitok’s statement comes a month after Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki vowed to clear the over 80,000 passport backlog.

To achieve this, Kindiki included a nightshift and the progressive flushing out of cartels who deliberately delayed the process in some instances.

Additionally, he has been making impromptu visits to the immigration offices, to ascertain that progress is being made.