Interior CS Kithure Kindiki has directed the State Department for Immigration and Citizen Services to ensure 49,500 uncollected passports are delivered and collected within 14 days effective May 10.
He directed the department to roll out a Rapid Results Initiative (RRI) to ensure the documents are cleared within the timeline.
The CS said there are 27,000 uncollected passports in Nairobi, Mombasa (3,000), Nakuru (4,200), Embu (4,500), Eldoret (3,900), Kisumu (3,900), Kisii (3,000) and Kericho (400).
Kindiki said the government has availed adequate resources for passport production with ease, this being part of the reforms initiated in May 2023 to resolve the backlog which then stood at 724,000 passports.
“There are now sufficient stocks of passport booklets and new modern high-capacity printers have been acquired for the personalisation of passport details,” he said.
Kindiki spoke on Tuesday after he toured the Immigration department at Nyayo House, Nairobi.
The CS said the streamlining of service delivery at the Immigration Directorate has given way to more efficient passport production and issuance procedures.
“A programme is in place for sustaining the reforms in the long run, including ensuring that the Immigration Directorate remains a corruption-free environment,” the CS said.
He added that in the past three years, many applicants for passports faced inconveniences occasioned by underfunding, shortage of passport booklets, breakdown of printing equipment, corruption and poor public relations by staff.
