Cabinet Secretary for Public Service and Human Capital Development Geoffrey Ruku has announced plans to migrate the services of passport registration processing from the immigration offices to the Huduma Centers.
Currently, for passport registration processing, Kenyans must visit immigration offices, but CS Ruku is advocating to decentralise the services to Huduma Centers.
His plan aims to increase accessibility, reduce congestion, and speed up processing times, making it easier for Kenyans to obtain passports without visiting overstretched immigration offices like Nyayo House.
Speaking on Tuesday morning after an impromptu visit to the Huduma Centres in Kiambu and Thika, Ruku revealed that Kenyans have been advocating for the services to be transferred to Huduma Centers.
He acknowledged that Kenyans have long demanded this transition, citing widespread frustrations over long queues, delays, and accessibility issues at immigration offices.
To facilitate the migration of the services, Ruku revealed that he was working closely with the Immigration Department to synchronise the services to the centres.
''There is one service which most of the Kenyans come to the Huduma Centers to ask if it is offered, and we will see how we can synchronise with the Ministry of Immigration to ensure passport registration can be processed from the Huduma Centers,'' Ruku announced.
According to Ruku, Kenya has nine passport centers in the country, including in Nairobi, Mombasa, Kisumu, Nakuru, Eldoret, Embu, Kisii, Bungoma, and Kericho counties, and decentralising these services from the centers promises to make the process faster.
With 58 Huduma Centers spread across the country, the CS argues that if brought to the Huduma Centers, the process would be brought closer to Kenyans and hasten the process that usually takes longer than expected.
The CS revealed that Kenyans can visit offices like Nyayo House only when needed or when they need to give documents.
"For other requirements, Kenyans can still visit Nyayo House or other immigration offices. However, as a government, we are committed to exploring ways to expand immigration services at Huduma Centres."
Apart from introducing passport processing to Huduma Centers, Ruku also maintained that his Ministry is working closely with the Director of Criminal Investigations (DCI) to fast-track the process of releasing the certificate of good conduct.
Ruku said it was necessary to remove some requirements for good conduct, terming them as time-bound, and the reason why the processing is taking longer than required.
