State to reduce passport processing period to three days from September

The Government has reiterated its commitment to ensure that effective 1st May, 2024, all applications for the Kenyan passport will be processed within 21 days from the date of application.

Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki said that the 21 days period will reduce to 7 days from 1st August, 2024 and 3 days from 1st September, 2024.

The CS was speaking when he inspected the new passport printing equipment at Nyayo House on Monday.

He was also taken through the production process, and interacted with passport applicants to assess their experience with the reforms initiated at the State Department for Immigration and Citizen Services.

CS Kindiki noted that the historical backlog in the processing of the Kenyan passport has been conclusively resolved and the bottlenecks that had resulted in frustration of many applicants addressed.

“The Government has facilitated the acquisition of adequate passport printing equipment, paid all the pending supplier bills, and addressed the supply chain constraints.“ Said CS Kindiki.

Adding that: “The backlog of pending passports that stood at 724,000 by March 11, 2024 has been resolved, and the 50,000 applications that were pending on Thursday, last week have been produced and are ready for delivery.“

He directed the Directorate of Immigration to embark on a Rapid Results Initiative (RRI) to expedite the collection of passports, and publish names of the applicants and the designated collection points by next week.

Further the Directorate of Immigration was tasked with developing a passport production and collection sustainability plan within this week, to ensure that there is no backlog re-occurrence.