The government has made efforts to reduce the passport backlog process at Nyayo House, Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki has said.
Earlier, Kindiki had directed that the backlog be cleared within 10 days.
Kindiki on Thursday said that the Department of Immigration and Citizen Services has reduced the daily backlog of processing passports.
"Since we introduced the new measures, we have been processing between 3,500 and 4,000 passports daily," he said.
Early this month, the passport backlog stood at 58,000 forcing the government to announce new measures.
The Interior Ministry introduced double shifts from 7 am to 7 pm, and 7 pm to 7 am to facilitate optimal printing.
"Clearing the backlog in passport processing and eradicating corruption remains a primary and must-achieve target for the government," Kindiki said.
In an early morning meeting, the Interior chief commended the Immigration department for making good progress towards sustaining the reforms aimed at attaining excellence in service delivery in the issuance of passports, national identity cards as well as birth and death certificates.
In attendance were Principal Secretary, Immigration and Citizen Services Amb Julius Bitok and Evelyn Cheluget (Director General, Immigration).
The CS also met the departmental senior officials to receive progress reports
Kindiki also interacted with members of the public to pick ideas for the continuous improvement of customer experience and overall service delivery.
Next week, the CS will announce a time frame for people to pick up their ready passports.
“The government will next week announce an expedited initiative for the compulsory, time-bound exercise of collection of all passports that are ready for collection,” Kindiki said.