The government has announced that passports must be collected within 30 days from the immigration offices across the country, beginning September 25.

Speaking on Tuesday, Interior Cabinet Secretary (CS) Kithure Kindiki revealed that the number of uncollected passports currently stands at 87,574.

“The passports must be collected within 30 days commencing September 25, 2023,” he said.

The CS said that those who fail to collect the passports will have to re-apply again and pay penalties to get new documents.

Further, he said that the Ministry will publish details of those who are required to collect their passports every Wednesday in the mass media and on its official websites.

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As a result the government has taken the decision to declare uncollected passports invalid once applicants fail to pick them up on schedule.

The Interior CS revealed that the uncollected travel documents were printed over a span of three years.

Additionally, he said that the government will invoke Section 5 of the Disposal of Uncollected Goods Act, and Section 31 of the Citizenship and Immigration Act in disposing of documents of those who fail to collect them within the set-out time frame.

“All applicants whose passports are ready must collect them. Those who will not collect their passports as scheduled, after the expiry of the notice, we will treat the uncollected documents as uncollected goods and therefore we will withdraw and dispose off the documents at the expiry of the requite notice period,” he said.

Out of the uncollected copies, 36,170 passports were reported to be at Nyayo House, 10,409 in Embu, 9,938 in Eldoret, 9,515 in Kisumu, 8,023 in Nakuru, 7,971 in Kisii, and 5,424 in Mombasa.

Kindiki said that the government is well on course to resolve the passport printing backlog.

He added that the Immigration Department will continue with the ongoing night and day printing until they acquire more equipment to speed up the process.

Kindiki said the Immigration Department will continue processing emergency applications within 24 hours.