Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki has vowed to crack down and clean up the Nyayo house, blaming corrupt officials for the interminable delays in passport issuance and processing.
The CS stated that there are officers at Nyayo House accepting bribes for services that the government provides for free while speaking before the Regional Integration Committee on Thursday at the Parliament Buildings. He vowed to clean up Nyayo house once and for all.
“I will clean up Nyayo house once & for all,” CS Kithure told the committee, “We will seal off Nyayo house & name it a scene of crime. How do Kenyans cue from 6AM? It won’t be business as usual. We must clean up Nyayo house,”
The CS stated that some of Kenya’s ongoing problems, such as insecurity and terrorism, can be traced back to corruption at Nyayo House.
“If you go to Wajir, 21 year olds are waiting for IDs for 3 years now,” he added.
According to the CS, the passport backlog currently stands at 58,000, with the Department of Immigration and Citizen Services processing approximately 5,000 passports daily.
He stated that plans are in the works to issue passports in 7 days, and that in the future, the issuance time will be reduced to 3 days, and 24 hours in the event of an emergency.
Concerning identity cards, CS Kithure stated that Kenyans must still wait 21 days for their cards to be issued, but that in the near future, ID cards will be replaced with a Digital Maisha number, which will translate to a Death Certificate number upon death.
