The government today has announce that they will process critical identification documents within one day after application.
Interior Cabinet Secretary, Dr Fred Matiangi has said that the issuance of identity cards, passports, birth and death certificates will be released on the same day. This will start from July 1st 2020.
Such critical documents take a lot of time to be processed and have been a source of pain for many Kenyans out there.
“We cannot be expected to be the provider of solutions yet deemed to be the greatest source of pain,” he was quoted as saying. “This must and shall stop. Change in our processes, procedures and attitude cannot be overemphasized.”
He noted that applications originating from outside Nairobi and abroad will take some days.
“I shall hold the County Commissioners responsible for in particular, immigration services, registration of persons and issuance of birth and death certificates in their counties,” he was quoted as saying.
Identification documents take a lot of time to be processed in the country. Passports take over a month to be processed. Fresh application of ID cards also take a month to be processed. Birth certificates take two weeks to be processed. Death certificates are apparently issued within 3 days in Kenya. Any of these timelines are not definite and can be way longer than stated.
If this becomes standard procedure, it will be a huge sigh of relief for many Kenyans out there. This comes a time after they announced that they will overhaul how we apply for the ePassports which caused a lot of pain due to the massive lines at the Immigration offices.
The CS also said that they will phase out the current manual driving licences by December 31st 2020. NTSA has been working on the new driving licences for a while now and this means that drivers will have to upgrade to the new licences by the end of this year.
