Immigration Principal Secretary Julius Bitok has revealed that the government has acquired new passport printing machines that will be producing 600 copies per hour.
In a statement dated Friday, April 12, the PS indicated that the new machines would help reduce the existing backlog and help the government issue passports faster.
According to Bitok, Kenyans will be able to get their travel documents within 14 working days.
The PS indicated that the passport machines had already been installed and will be launched next week.
“We will be commissioning the new printers next week. We are determined to render delays in the issuance of passports a thing of the past as we have secured the necessary resources to procure sufficient booklets and other recurrent expenses," he stated.
Through this initiative, the PS added that the government was keen on printing one million copies this year, almost double what they did last year.
"To decentralise access to passports, permits and other services, the Directorate of Immigration will also open new offices in Nyeri, Bungoma and Garissa and invest in government-owned passport and border management systems to provide real-time data on the entry and exit of all travellers.
"In the same period, the government hopes to issue 1.2 million digital National ID cards to first-time applicants and 1.6 million duplicate IDs to build on to the 733,000 Maisha cards it has been issued so far," read the statement in part
On the other hand, he also announced that the Ministry would implement the no vetting policy for ID applications as announced by President William Ruto during the week.
He indicated that the directive issued by the Head of State would begin in May.
Meanwhile, Bitok also indicated that the government was keen on digitising other government services such as records of birth.
"Also on target is the digitisation of 46 million records on births and deaths in the country held by the Civil Registration Services and 2 million records under the custody of the National Registration Bureau.
"On eCitizen, it is projected that the number of services available on the platform will grow to 20,000 from the current 16,000 pushing the total number of average daily users to above one million," he expressed.
