A new passport issuance office targeting South Rift region will be opened in Kericho town in January 2024.
Making the announcement on Friday, Immigration and Citizen Services PS Julius Bitok said the new office to be located at Ardhi House in Kericho to ease pressure on Eldoret and Kisumu offices.
This will be the 8th Immigration office after the Nairobi, Mombasa, Kisumu, Eldoret, Kisii Nakuru and Embu offices.
This development comes as welcome news for residents of South Rift, who have often had to take more time in passport applications.
"The government’s overall objective is to ensure that passport applications are processed efficiently, with the goal of reducing the processing time to no more than two weeks," Bitok said.
The addition of the Kericho office is expected to contribute significantly to achieving this goal and improving the overall passport application experience for Kenyan citizens.
The PS was accompanied by Kericho Senator Aron Cheruiyot and Ainamoi MP Benjamin Langat.
The government has been working to streamline the passport application process, with a focus on reducing the waiting period for applicants.
As a result, Interior CS Kithure Kindiki launched the Rapid Results Initiative (RRI) campaign on September 19, 2023, in a bid to clear a soaring passport backlog amid a crisis at the Immigration Department blamed on a broken printer and corruption.
Initially, there was a backlog of 87,454 passports that were yet to be collected from the Directorate of Immigration headquarters and regional offices.
While issuing a directive for the issuance and delivery of passports during the launch of the initiative, the CS warned that passports must be collected within 30 days of issuance, failure to which they will be disposed of.
He warned that passports that would not have been collected after the expiry of the 30-day notice would be treated as uncollected documents and disposed of.
