Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki Friday took the fault for the delayed progress in passport issuance.
Kindiki acknowledged the pain and frustration experienced by many Kenyans seeking passports for various reasons, resulting in lost employment opportunities and restricted travel for medical care, education, business, or leisure.
“The prevailing state of affairs is inexcusable, considering that it is the right of every Kenyan to acquire citizenship documents, including travel documents. As the Cabinet Secretary overseeing passport issuance, I take responsibility for the slow pace of reforms and the prevailing systemic inefficiencies,” he said.
He said it has been years of insufficient investment in production infrastructure, accumulating supplier debts, and corrupt practices that have hindered the government’s transformation program for the State Department for Immigration and Citizen Services.
However, Kindiki committed to conclusively resolve the challenges surrounding passport issuance, aiming to create efficiency and timely service delivery in the shortest time possible.
“Beginning this morning, a crackdown has been commenced to identify all corrupt officials. Those found culpable will be removed from service, and held personally accountable by prosecution and surcharged.”
He had held a meeting at Nyayo House with senior staff there.
He assured the public that arrangements have been made to secure the necessary funds and settle outstanding supplier debts, demonstrating a proactive approach to address the long-standing issues in passport processing.
The issue has affected many travelers and affected business in general.
In as much the CS is blaming some insiders at the department, others say it has something to do with lack of money to enable service delivery.
The government admitted it was experiencing challenges with the issuance of passports to applicants.
This, government Spokesperson Isaac Mwaura noted, was a result of the occasional breakdown of machines being used at Nyayo house.
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He, however, stated that there was no cause for alarm noting two new machines have since been procured and set for commissioning.
“We recognise that challenge but we are up to speed. We have had a problem with the machines at Nyayo house,” Mwaura said.
He added that some 100,000 new passports have been printed and set for issuance soon.
Late last year, Kithure announced a raft of measures aimed at ensuring efficiency in the issuance of the documents at Nyayo House.
In September, he announced that the government had initiated plans to lease new machines from private investors because buying new ones is costly.
“The historical backlog that had accumulated over many years because of poor printing equipment, low investment and corruption has been technically resolved,” the CS said.
Kindiki then revealed that cases of machine breakdowns and delays in the procurement processes of booklets had led to the backlog of passports.
He disclosed that there was an existing backlog of slightly over 58,000 passport applications, with a printing capacity of about 5,000 passports daily.
The government, he added, had stepped up intelligence to rid the facility of cartels that had continued to derail service delivery at the offices.
