Government releases list of ready passports for collection

Piece by: MANNY ANYANGO

30 September 2023

• The department said 7,501 passports are ready for collection in Nairobi while 1,540 applicants in Eldoret have been given the green light to pick the important travel document.

• In Embu, 1,072 passports are ready for collection while in Kisii, 1,479 are also ready for collection.

Kenyans whose passports have been delayed for months can now heave a sigh of relief after the Department of Immigration published a list of ready passports on its website.

The department said 7,501 passports are ready for collection in Nairobi while 1,540 applicants in Eldoret have been given the green light to pick the important travel document.

In Embu, 1,072 passports are ready for collection while in Kisii, 1,479 are also ready for collection.

In Nakuru, 1,000 passports are ready while 1,160 have been printed and awaiting collection by applicants in Mombasa.

In Kisumu, the department said 1,602 passports are ready.

To access the full list, click here

The Immigration department said the passports should be picked from October 2 -6, 2023.

The delay in passport printing was attributed to the breakdown of a machine, shortage of e-passport booklets and limited storage capacity of current servers.

This caused a two-year delay as the department had at least 100,000 pending passports.

"The Directorate has two aged e-passport machines with each of them having the capacity to print 800 per day…M2 printer broke down in April hence the need to replace a laser engraving unit that could only be procured from the manufacturer based in Germany,” Principal Secretary Julius Bitok said.

Due to uproar on Social media, Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki took action and promised to clear the backlog within two weeks.

"That backlog which was in the upward of over 120, 000 passports has been technically addressed. It has been resolved," he said on September 19 while launching the Rapid Result Initiative.

Among the changes included the revision of the working hours in the passport printing offices to 24hr operation to maximise service delivery.

Kindiki explained that it was due to the day and night shifts where they produced more than 4,000 to 4,500 passports within 24 hours.

"Out of that were only able to release 800, meaning we were creating another backlog of delivery because as long as that passport document is not in the hands of the applicant it is part of the backlog and it is us who have that document.