Two key government agencies are unable to print identification documents over lack of funds.
The Immigration Department and the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) cannot meet their daily demands for the documents, which has left many applicants frustrated.
The developments have left many applicants crying and frustrated as some can not travel to needed places.
The situation at the NTSA has been blamed on lack of funds to repair a printer that broke down more than three months ago slowing down the printing of smart driving licenses.
Insiders said they are frustrated by the situation and have been seeking help in vain.
“We know many drivers are being harassed on the roads because they lack the smart DL after we stopped printing of the older generation. The printer is down,” said an insider.
This has partially affected the production of logbooks at the agency amid a push to get the needed funds for servicing.
At the immigration, the department said they have been running low on passport stock levels for the past few months.
“In this regard, the Directorate has decided that passport printing be limited to urgent cases only for the time being.”
“This is therefore to inform you to limit your requests for special cases to very urgent cases only,” said the directorate Director General Alexander Muteshi in an internal memo dated November 8.
He also told Senate’s National Security and Defence Committee those who have applied for the passports will have to wait longer for their passports owing to a lack of booklets for printing.
This has been worsened by a situation where Immigration officials in missions abroad are experiencing non-payment of their dues for months by the National Treasury.
Muteshi said they are collecting about Sh12 billion annually but has to beg the National Treasury for the release of funds to purchase new printers and pay its workers.
He said their current printers they are using are old and obsolete, with a capacity of only 1,500 passports per day.
He said new machines could print at least 10,000 passports a day.
“If we buy new machines, we will be able to reduce the backlog by printing 10,000 passports a day.”
He added since the Immigration department digitised its services, with all payments done online, officers in missions abroad have been having issues with payment.
While supporting the ongoing digitisation, Muteshi told the committee that the National Treasury should create avenues for releasing cash meant for public officers.
Projects the department is planning to undertake include an Integrated Border Management Service, digitalisation, facial recognition, e-gates, Passenger Name Record and Advance Passenger Indexing.
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