Residents of Garissa and surrounding counties will now have ease in accessing services offered by the Immigration State Department following the opening of a new passport office in the region om Thursday.
While presiding over the launch of the new office yesterday, President William Ruto said citizens in the Northern counties will now have equal access to government services.
“The opening of the office is a fulfillment of my administration's electoral pledge to restore passport printing services after they were stopped in 2014. You no longer have to travel long distances to get these services just as I promised you,” President Ruto said.
Other than Garissa County, the new immigration office will offer convenience to the surrounding counties of Mandera, Wajir and parts of Tana River, Lamu, Kitui and Isiolo counties. For years, locals in the aforementioned counties had to spend a lot of money and time to travel to Nairobi and other regional offices to access services.
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.
Garissa and other regional offices ceased issuing passports to comply with the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) guidelines that recommended the centralisation of the printing of passports and other travel documents to reinforce their security from forgery and other manipulations.
However, a modern and integrated e-Passport Management System has enabled the Directorate of Immigration to decentralise passport application process while adhering to ICAO and other global passport security guidelines.
Immigration & Citizen Services PS Julius Bitok said the reopening of the Garissa office and the elimination of vetting for national ID card applicants for residents of border counties will promote fairness and equality in access to identity and registration documents.
He also said that with the stoppage of vetting, the Garissa Immigration office is expected to witness a high demand for passport applications.
“While in Wajir on Wednesday, President Ruto signed a proclamation vacating vetting for ID cards in the North Eastern region and other border counties. With the new Immigration office in Garissa, we believe eligible applicants will flock in big numbers to apply for passports and other services,” PS Bitok said.
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 the Supreme Council of Kenya Muslims chairperson Hassan Ole Naado, over 50 per cent 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.
Last June, during his three-day state visit to Bungoma where the Madaraka Day celebration was hosted, President Ruto issued the first batch of passports processed in the newly established passport office in the county.
The office, the Head of State said, would play a crucial role in serving residents of Bungoma, Kakamega, Vihiga and Trans Nzoia which have a combined population of around six million people.
In March 2024, President Ruto, accompanied by his then Deputy, Rigathi Gachagua, PS Bitok and Immigration Department Director General, Eve Cheluget, launched the Kericho passport office.
