Kenya Immigration department has suspended passport application and collection. The suspension of services is due to a technical hitch that is affecting the department’s system.
“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,” wrote the Directorate of Immigration Services.
The department has promised to share new dates for passport collection for those who had already been scheduled to collect. However, it has not issued a definite timeline saying this will be done “as soon as possible.”
Ironically, this comes a week after the Cabinet Secretary of Interior and Administration of National Government, Kithure Kindiki promised passports could soon take just 3 days to process. The department had promised quick turnaround times of 21 days for current applicants after it received a batch of new printers and more passport booklets. This is promised to come down to just 3 days by end of year.
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Currently, passport processing has a huge backlog after delays in printing that stem from late last year. Principal Secretary of State Department for Immigration & Citizen Services, Julius Bitok, had promised that printing would be done day and night. Furthermore, the department increased the number of staff and has increased the counters from 14 to 40.
This latest technical hitch is a huge blow for Kenyans as many have been frustrated by the previous delay.
