In an effort to reduce the lengthy delays in passport issuance, the Ministry of Interior and National Administration's Directorate of Immigration has acquired two new printers.
It is anticipated that the recently commissioned printers will shorten the passport processing times that have left numerous individuals in need of employment, education, business, and healthcare.
Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki states that the processing time for passports will be 21 days starting on May 1 and will likely drop to 7 days on August 1.
As per CS Kindiki, the processing time for passports will be shortened to three days starting from November 1, ending the unimaginable backlog that had eluded Immigration for several years.
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The government is anticipated to release a timetable this week for the Rapid Results Initiative (RRI), which will include disclosing the identities of 50,000 applicants whose passports have been printed but have not yet been picked up.
Additionally, CS Kindiki has instructed the Immigration Department to create a long-term strategy to guarantee that the backlog issue doesn't recur.
The Interior Ministry hopes to double the number of passports issued in 2024 to at least one million, up from 533,000 in 2023, and the two new printing machines at Nyayo House should produce about 600 passports per hour.
With the two new printers put into service, the Directorate of Immigration will be able to produce between 250 and 300 passports per hour, compared to its daily demand of 5,000 passport applications.
The directorate's total capacity, when combined with the two current printers, will be 5,600 passports in eight hours and over 10,000 passports in a day.
