E-passport: Government makes new announcement regarding deadline

Following several complaints about the frustrations that accompany applying for the new generation e-passports in the country, the government has moved to allay fears that people will not be allowed to apply after August.

Through a statement seen by Ureport, the Immigration Department clarified that the set deadline of August 31, 2019, was for the validity of the old-generation passports and not for applying for e-passports.

“The long queues witnessed is due to a misconception that people will not be allowed to apply for the e-passport after the end of August.

“These are the fears we as Government want to allay,” the statement signed by the department’s Director General Alex Muteshi said.

Further, the government stated that printing machines are now serviced regularly to ensure efficiency in service delivery.

“We have taken contingency measures to ensure that this does not happen through regular servicing. When servicing the machines, printing has to be stopped for only a short while before immediate resumption,” read the statement.

Recently, four new immigration centres were opened in Kisii, Embu, Eldoret and Nakuru to ease congestion.

In diaspora, there are centres in Johannesburg, Berlin, London, Paris, Washington and Dubai.