Gov’t Moves to Reduce Number of Kenyans Applying for e-Passports
The government has moved to reduce the number of Kenyans thronging the Immigration Department headquarters at Nyayo House to apply for e-passports.
Immigration Principal Secretary Gordon Kihalangwa said the department will from Tuesday serve digital passport applicants based on their travel schedule.
The official said priority will be given to those renewing their passports for medical cases, students traveling for studies abroad, and state officials for work-related reasons.
“Beginning Tuesday, those in the specified categories should ensure they come with supporting documents for them to be served,” said Kihalangwa.
Kihalangwa said that they had established that there is a big number of Kenyans who are applying for the new generation passports yet they have no plans to travel soon.
He said this group of applicants was to blame for the long queues witnessed at Nyayo House station in the past few weeks.
“If you ask a good number of people applying for the new passport, a good number of them have no desire of traveling to any place. For that matter this congestion is undesirable,” said Kihalangwa as quoted by Nairobi News.
Last week, the Immigration Department said issuance of e-passports will continue even after the deadline for phasing out the old passports elapses on August 31st.
The department clarified that it is the validity of the old-generation passports that expire on August 31st.
“The long queues witnessed are due to a misconception that people will not be allowed to apply for the e-passport after the end of August. These are the fears we as Government want to allay,” Immigration Director-General Alex Muteshi said.
Comments (5)
Just curious why it took so long to figure this out. Does this mean that there will soon be an epiphany about the idiotic deadline?
Looks like the government wanted to raise a certain amount of money. Once they reached their target the fake imposed deadline are removed. The government created this crisis knowingly. Instead of telling every Kenya to donate 5 thou, they come out with this trick.
And I thought I was cynical. What you say makes perverse sense and unfortunately, rings true.
Our government is lead by people who thing they are running a nursery school. What should have happened was to allow people use whatever passports they have and then when they expire, you get the new ones. It is a waste of resources; throwing unexpired passports and then not able to accomodate those who need passports to travel. This is the same thing with huduma numbers!! They have to stop this nonsense of changing important things in bars and restaurants. They need to do studies to the after effects of some changes.
Ridiculous is an understatement my passport expires in 2026 yet I have to get a new one I live in Arkansas how the heck ,do I get to dc, tight work schedule,bills?