The government has temporarily suspended booking as a requirement for collecting passports.
The State Department for Immigration and Citizen Services in a public notice in the dailies on Friday said the move will hasten the collection process as many passports remain uncollected.
According to the Immigration PS Julius Bitok, 65,589 passports are yet to be collected.
Bitok called on all applicants whose names have been listed across various counties to collect their passports at the station where they submitted their applications.
A total of 65,589 passports are lying uncollected in different offices
across the country with Nairobi leading with 30,916 uncollected passports.
Other offices include Mombasa with 6,757 uncollected
passports, Embu 6,608, Kisii 6,130, Eldoret 6,022 uncollected passports and Kisumu
5,146 passports.
Nakuru has 3,485 uncollected passports, both Kericho and
Bungoma have few uncollected passports with Kericho having 354 and Bungoma 171 uncollected passports.
The PS said the department has reformed its operations and invested in strategic resources to enhance efficiency.
The reforms have targeted speeding up the issuance of passports and
other services through various interventions.
The interventions include the expansion of passport issuance capacity by investing in advanced printers and employing more staff to meet the ever-growing demand for services.
"It has also remodelled the passport collection stations to provide more service counters and a friendlier environment. These interventions have effectively supported the clearance of the historical backlog of unprinted passports," Bitok said.
He further noted that the Government is also planning to expand regional offices in some parts of the country which will help reduce pressure at the Nyayo House headquarters.
Additional offices will be opened in Garissa, Nyeri and Machakos, he said.
To support the travel requirements for Kenyans seeking job
opportunities outside the country, the PS said the Immigration Department has set up
dedicated Migrant labour counters to fast-track passport applications.
He said all prescribed fees for passport and other services have
been listed on their official website and that no one should pay bribes or
offer any other inducement to obtain services.
The PS has also stated that it has introduced a self-tracking
and feedback mechanism that will promote transparency, self-tracking, and
prompt feedback.
Applicants who wish to find out their passport application status can send a short message with their eCitizen tracking number to 22222.
