.jfif)
Immigration PS Julius Bitok has called on Kenyans who applied for passports and are ready to collect them from various offices.
Bitok said that the immigration department now prints 10,000 passports per day.
This, he said, has been enabled by the procurement of one million booklets that will be able to last the department until April 2025.
The PS said that so far 90, 000 passports remain uncollected.
“Initially, we had two machines with a capacity of producing 3,000 passports per day, but after acquiring two more, we are producing 10,000 passports per day for the day and night shifts.
Bitok further lauded the department for working hard and being able to print a huge number of passports per day.
He said that the situation has changed compared to before when it took them almost one to two or three to print.
According to the PS, applying for and receiving a passport only takes about seven days.
This will be a relief to the thousands of Kenyans who apply for passports daily. The government has been working to ensure the passport backlog issues that Kenyans have experienced over the past few years are sorted.
Interior CS Kithure Kindiki has been leading key reforms in the Immigration and Citizen Services department where, he, among others plans to reduce the time it takes for one to acquire a passport. the date of application.
Kindiki said that the period would further be reduced to three days from September 1, 2024.
He also said that the government has addressed issues that caused delays in the processing of the passport.
"The historical backlog in the processing of the Kenyan passport has been conclusively resolved and the bottlenecks that had resulted in the frustration of many applicants addressed," the CS said.
"The Government has facilitated the acquisition of adequate passport printing equipment, paid all the pending supplier bills, and addressed the supply chain constraints."
