Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki indicted docket held by Immigration Principal Secretary Julius Bitok labeling it a ‘crime scene’ and vowed action to clear passport backlog.
While speaking before the Regional Integration Committee at the Parliament Buildings yesterday, Kindiki 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 He vowed to clean up Nyayo house once and for all.
“I will clean up Nyayo house once and for all. We will seal off Nyayo house and 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 lamented.
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.