Relief for North Eastern residents as Ruto opens Garissa passport office » Capital News
NAIROBI, Kenya, Feb 6 – President William Ruto on Thursday presided over the opening of the new passport office in Garissa town.
The facility will also offer other Immigration services in line with the policy of ensuring all citizens have equal access to government services.
Ruto said the opening of the office was also a fulfillment of his administration electoral pledge to restore passport printing services after they were stopped in 2014.
Immigration and Citizen Services PS Julius Bitok said the reopening of the Garissa office and the elimination of vetting for national ID cards applicants for residents of border counties will promote fairness and equality in access to identity and registration documents.
He said with the stoppage of vetting, the Garissa Immigration office was expected to witness a high demand for passports applications.
“Yesterday (Wednesday) in Wajir, the President signed a proclamation vacating vetting for ID cards in North Eastern region and other border counties. With the new Immigration office in Garisa, we believe eligible applicants will flock in big numbers to apply for passports and other services,” he said
Garissa and other regional offices ceased issuing passports to comply with the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) recommendations for centralized printing of passports and other travel documents to reinforce their security from forgery and other manipulations.
However, the State Department of Immigration Administration said that the investments in a modern and integrated e-Passport Management System has enabled the Directorate of Immigration to decentralize passport application process while adhering to ICAO and other global passport security guidelines.
Besides Garissa county, the new Immigration office will offer convenience to Mandera, Wajir and parts of Tana River, Lamu, Kitui and Isiolo counties saving applicants expenses in transport and time currently spent accessing services in Nairobi and other regional offices.
Garissa becomes the 10th passport application centre in Kenya and the third to be opened by President Ruto after Kericho and Bungoma.
The others are Nairobi, Mombasa, Kisumu, Nakuru, Embu, Eldoret and Kisii.
The new office will have a dedicated migrant labour desk for fast-tracked passport applications for those pursuing foreign job opportunities.
It will also be central in providing passports to around 2,000 Hajj Pilgrims and travelers for medical, studies, business, social and leisure visits.
According to SUPKEM chair Hassan Ole Naado, over 50% of Hajj pilgrims come from the Northeastern Region.
This year, Kenya has been allocated 4,500 slots for Haji that must obtain relevant visas by April in time for the religious gathering in May.