We have had the classic ‘analogue’ passport for a while now and since we are in the digital age, the passport was due for an upgrade. Kenya’s Immigration Department had announced in a tweet that the new ePassports were to be issued as from April this year (3rd of April), but they have since changed their stance in another tweet that gives a new deadline.
These are the contents from the letter as shown from the Department of Immigration Services tweet.
The public had been earlier notified that the issuance of the Kenyan East African e-Passport was to commence on 3rd April 2017. This was to be done simultaneously with other EAC member states. Due to circumstances beyond our control, the rollout will now be done from 1st September 2017.
The Department is confident that the 1st September rollout date of the Kenyan EAC e-Passpoort will be met.
Thank you fro your support and understanding
The new date is 1st September this year which is almost 5 months ahead of the previous deadline and it is unclear what ‘circumstances’ warranted the decision.
From a video published on YouTube by the East African Community member states, they gave reasons why the ePassport was the way to go, like it is the world standard in travel documents, there is greater confidence in them and it is being used in more than a hundred countries. There will also be three variants: Ordinary, Service and Diplomatic.
This follows the progress by the Department of Immigration to fully digitize their services which we currently use on the eCitizen portal like getting temporary permits or applying for a passport.
