Kenyans must pick up their passports within 30 days of being available under a government program known as the Rapid Results Initiative (RRI), failing which they will be disposed of.
Last week, Kithure Kindiki, the interior cabinet secretary, said that 87,574 passports were ready for pickup, with the majority being picked up at the Nairobi office of the Immigration Department in Nyayo House.
The Immigration Department will publish a list of all applicants whose passports are due for pickup the next week as part of the month-long passport collecting plan every Wednesday.
The workout started on September 25 and will last for 30 days.
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The names of passport applicants who will be served each day of the RRI exercise are listed on the department's website (www.immigration.co.ke) and X account (@ImmigrationDept), according to the department.
Passports can be picked up at the immigration office in Nairobi, Mombasa, Kisumu, Eldoret, Nakuru, Embu, or Kisii, depending on where the application was submitted.
"For ease of service, passports will be issued to a specified number of applicants per day throughout the 30-day RRI period," the government states.
CS Kindiki issued a warning last week stating that applicants whose passports would be destroyed would also need to reapply and pay a fee.
"We will audit our system after the RRI to be ready to manufacture passports in 7 days. The Immigration Department will continue to process emergency applications within 24 hours, he said, adding that his organization's long-term goal is to cut the current seven days to just 3.
Delays in passport processing have frequently been ascribed to equipment failures, a lack of sufficient resources, and corrupt individuals in the Immigration Department.
According to CS Kindiki, the department had a backlog of 120,000 applications in May, but it has already been cleared.
