A report by the Ombudsman has exposed massive rot at the Immigration department, including overcharging of passport applicants and issuing documents with fewer pages than the ones applied for.
The damning report also revealed cases of documents mysteriously getting lost.
Appearing before the Senate’s National Security, Defence and Foreign Relations Committee, the Commission on Administrative Justice vice-chairperson Washington Sati said their investigations revealed maladministration, inefficiency and discourtesy by immigration officials.
Mr Sati told the committee that applicants would be issued with passports with fewer pages than that paid for without their consent and/or consideration for a refund. Further, when applicants’ whose documents had disappeared raised complaints, they were met with casual, impolite, and inconsiderate dismissal by staff at the department.
The commission launched investigations after receiving complaints against the department from nine Kenyans.
Mr Sati said all the nine allegations against the department were substantiated, with investigations confirming that seven complainants had applied and paid for ‘B’ series (50 pages) passports but were issued with ‘A’ series (34 pages) passports with no refund of the excess payment.
The Baringo Senator William Cheptumo-led committee heard that one complainant was asked to top up her payment from “A” series to ‘B’ series but was still issued with ‘A’ series without a refund of the excess payment of Sh1,550. She had been advised by an immigration officer to upgrade from the ‘A’ series to ‘B’ series due to the alleged unavailability of the ‘A’ series applied for but was still issued with the “A” series 34 pages.
In another case, an applicant was forced to reapply for her passport as a lost passport after Immigration officers allegedly misplaced her application for renewal, only for her to be issued with the originally applied for renewed passport but with fewer pages than that paid for. There was no refund of either her first excess payment of Sh1,500 or her second payment for a lost passport of Sh12,050.
“In this regard, she did not only lose Sh12,050 arising from the second application for a “lost” passport which was totally pointless but also lost Sh1,500 from her first application for renewal of passport having been given a “B” series passport instead of a “C” series passport paid for,” said Mr Sati.
The report further indicated that the department has no mechanism for automatically refunding excess payment occasioned by the issuance of passports with fewer pages than that applied for. The manual procedure available, he said, was found to be bureaucratic and cumbersome making it very difficult for applicants to get a refund.
In its defence, the department claimed the complainants edited their applications to a lower series. But Mr Sati said their investigations confirmed that an application once submitted on the e-Citizen platform cannot be edited.
The commission has recommended that the department refunds all applicants with outstanding overpayment. They also want the department to formulate policy guidelines that will formalise and standardise the management of issues arising from the passport application processes.
According to the commission, the policy should look into issues of cancellation, upgrading/downgrading of applications, handling of applications considered urgent and procedures for refund.
“This will help eliminate opportunities for corruption, unnecessary bureaucracies and abuse of power by Immigration staff,” said Mr Sati.
