Government halts passport application and collection after system failure
Members of the public queue at the Department of Immigration Services Passport control office at Nyayo House in Nairobi. Inset: Kenyan ID cards, a passport, and birth certificates.
The Immigration Department on Tuesday halted the application and collection of passports.
The department said in a statement that it is currently experiencing downtime in its passport application receiving system as well as the collection service.
“We regret to inform our clients that we are currently experiencing a downtime that has affected our normal passport application receiving and collection services.
"Our engineers are working to resolve the issue and ensure the resumption of normal services as soon as possible,” the statement read in part.
The department said affected applicants have been informed that alternative dates would be communicated as soon as possible.
“We apologize for the inconvenience caused,” it added.
The downtime comes a week after the government pledged to issue at least one million passports and three million digital national identity cards by the end of 2024.
This was after the successful acquisition of two new passport printing machines which have already been delivered for installation at Nyayo House, Nairobi.
Immigration and Citizen Services Principal Secretary, Prof Julius Bitok said the new passports and digital IDs target will make it easier for Kenyans to access registration documents.
He also said the increased production of the documents will raise the revenue generated via the e-Citizen platform to an average of Sh1 billion daily over the same period and boost the government’s coffers.
“We believe there are realistic targets based on the strategic improvements and investments that we have made to our vital personal registration and documentation systems,” Prof Bitok said.
The new passports target is nearly double the 533,000 issued in 2023 with the higher output pegged on the combined printing capacity of 600 passports per hour by the new machines. Their installation is expected to reduce the waiting time for issuing passports to less than 14 working days.
The congestion at Nyayo House is also expected to reduce with the government opening new offices in Nyeri, Bungoma and Garissa.
By the end of 2024, the State hopes to issue 1.2 million digital national ID cards to first-time applicants and 1.6 million duplicate IDs to build on the 733,000 Maisha cards it has issued so far.
Last month, Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki told Parliament that the State had turned to the National Security Intelligence Service (NIS) to help secure passport printing materials from overseas to clear the existing backlog of 724,000 applications with the requests increasing daily.
He said that the government is facing difficulties sourcing passport printing materials due to worldwide supply chain shortfalls.
“I have assigned the NIS to support the State Department for Immigration and Registration of Citizens to get us these travel materials,” Prof Kindiki told the National Assembly Committee on Regional Integration.
“NIS has been supporting us with the procurement of the booklets and we have made tremendous progress since then. This has also helped us cut tender wars and the attendant nonsense on urgent procurement.”
Prof Kindiki did not elaborate on the number of passports and the amounts involved.
He apologised to the country for not meeting an earlier target to issue passports within seven days of application as had been promised and acknowledged that corruption is still rife at Nyayo House even after the arrest and prosecution of 17 members of staff.
