Interior Cabinet Secretary (CS) Prof. Kithure Kindiki on Friday chaired a meeting at the Immigration Department’s Nyayo House headquarters to review the execution of operational and policy changes implemented to address the issue of passport processing delays.
Immigration and Citizen Services Principal Secretary Prof. Julius Bitok and Immigration and Citizen Services Director General Evelyn Cheluget were also in attendance.
Speaking after the meeting, CS Kindiki told journalists that enforcement of the policy changes is on track while reiterating that the backlog at Nyayo House will be cleared in the next 10 days.
“There is a lot of improvement. We are in a better place than where we were last week. The queues are shorter and the movement is faster but still, we have more to do and therefore today we have been strategising with the teams here because as I promised we must crack this problem,” said the CS.
“In 10 days from now, there will be no single backlog matter on passports. Between the time I was last here and now, we’ve had new challenges and we have seen how to address them so that we make sure that even new applications are processed in such a way that they don’t create another backlog after we have cleared the current backlog.”
The CS further noted that the State is instituting plans to address long-term issues affecting the Immigration Department but stated the government’s priority is to clear the backlog at Nyayo House.
“We will address the long-term issues once the backlog issue is addressed. We have long-term issues on policy matters, production of passports, the application process and whether we will continue having people come here to queue for their documents or whether we are going to have other methods where citizens are treated in a more orderly manner without coming to queue here,” he said.
“As I mentioned last week we have made arrangements for new equipment but they have not arrived. We must use gov’t procedures on procurement so our hands are tied on how fast we can do some things.
He added that the deployment of day and night shifts to facilitate full-capacity printing of passports, procurement of modern printing equipment, and recruitment of additional immigration officers will similarly help the State resolve the systemic challenges that have hampered service delivery at Nyayo House.
