Immigration under pressure to clear passport backlog as deadline nears

Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki is impressed with the progress made so far in clearing the historical backlog of applications for passports.

The CS reiterated his directive to the Immigration Department to clear the backlog within 10 days.

With only five days remaining to the deadline set for the task, the CS Thursday made another visit to Nyayo House and held a meeting with the department’s top officials led by PS Julius Bitok and Immigration Director General Evelyn Cheluget.

They reviewed the progress made so far in the processing and issuance of the travel documents.

Kindiki who has been rated as the best-performing Cabinet Secretary launched a crackdown to weed out corrupt cartels and streamline the passport-issuing exercise and other services a week ago.

The passport backlog stood at 58,000 with the CS attributing the delays in processing to massive corruption.

“Since we introduced the new measures, we have been processing between 3,500 and 4,000 passports daily,” he said.

Part of the new measures announced to streamline operations include the deployment of day and night shifts to facilitate optimal printing of passports, procurement of modern printing equipment, and recruitment of additional immigration officers.

The CS later collected feedback from service-seekers at the facility as the government progressively models its interventions around the demands and interests of members of the public.

A similar reforms drive is also underway in the registration of births/deaths and processing of national ID cards.