The government says the long-standing backlog in the delivery and issuance of passports, national identification cards, death, and birth certificates has been significantly reduced in the last three weeks.
According to the Interior Ministry, the State Department for Immigration and Citizen Services has reduced the backlog from over 100,000 to around 35,000, with approximately 3,500 to 4,000 passports.
Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki met the departmental senior officials to receive a progress report and later interacted with members of the public to receive sentiments on how customer experience and overall service delivery have improved.
The ministry had set a deadline to clear the backlog due in five days.
The progress is amid the ongoing crackdown to weed out corrupt cartels and streamline the passport-issuing exercise and other services.
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Kindiki has also said that stiffer regulations will also be imposed, making passport collections time-bound, noting that citizens must also play their part in the move to streamline the Immigration department.
“I think part of it is members of the public. They apply for passports and then forget… After that, we will withdraw because the law allows us to withdraw passports,” said Kindiki during an impromptu visit to the Embu Regional Immigration Department offices.
