The government has temporarily suspended booking as a requirement for collecting passports to hasten the process of picking up the already processed documents.
In a statement on Friday, Immigration and Citizen Services PS Julius Bitok noted that the Directorate of Immigration (DIS) is holding 65,589 uncollected passports in the various regional immigration offices across the country.
“The DIS has temporarily suspended booking as a requirement for collecting passports to hasten the process,” the notice read in part.
Immigrations Principal Secretary Julius Bitok urged applicants whose names appear on the provided list to collect their passports directly from the stations where they originally submitted their applications.
According to the PS, at least 65,589 passports are awaiting collection across various immigration centres in Kenya, with the highest number left unclaimed being in Nairobi with 30,916 uncollected passports.
Other offices include Mombasa with 6,757 uncollected passports, Embu 6,608, Kisii 6,130, Eldoret 6,022 uncollected passports and Kisumu 5,146 passports.
Nakuru has 3,485 uncollected passports, both Kericho and Bungoma have few uncollected passports with Kericho having 354 and Bungoma 171 uncollected passports.
The PS noted that the DIS has reformed its operations and invested in strategic resources to speed up the issuance of passports and other services.
Some of these measures include investing in advanced printers, deploying more staff and remodelling the passport collection stations to support the growing demand.
Further, the State has expanded the regional immigration offices in Kericho and Bungoma to provide efficient services. Additional regional officers will also be opened in Garissa, Nyeri and Machakos.
A dedicated migrant labour counter has been set up in the immigration offices to assist thousands of Kenyans seeking job opportunities abroad.
DIS appealed to the public to track their passport application status by sending a short SMS with their eCitizen tracking number to 22222.
