The government has announced that all 724,000 passports in the historical backlog, which accumulated between June 2021 and March 2024, have been printed.

Speaking when he held a service delivery efficiency review meeting and inspected passport production at Nyayo House, Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki said 684,500 passports have already been collected by their owners.

“It took a bit of time to get exchequer funding, pay pending supplier debts, dismantle the corruption cartels, and acquire and install modern, high capacity printing equipment.”

Further, the CS stated that efforts were underway to fastrack the collection of 39,500 ready but uncollected passports from the backlog lot.

He added that the government is working towards sustaining the production and delivery systems and creating system efficiency in archival, record management, registry, and Information Technology management.

Kindiki stated that going forward, all new applicants will receive their passports within 21 days from the date of application, while urgent cases will be processed immediately.

“Effective August 1, 2024, the waiting period will be reduced to 7 days and further to 3 days effective November 1, 2024,” he stated.