The Kenyan government has said it will soon fine passport applicants who fail to collect the travel document within stipulated timeframes.
Kenya’s Interior Cabinet Secretary (CS) Kithure Kindiki said on Tuesday that a total of 87,574 passports remain uncollected, even as the country deals with delays in passport processing.
“Persons who fail to pick their documents within the stipulated period, and at the expiry of the due notice, will have their passports disposed in accordance with the law and penalised when making a future application,” Kindiki said in the capital Nairobi.
Nairobi leads in the number of uncollected passports (36,170), followed by the eastern county of Embu (10,409), the Rift Valley town of Eldoret (9,938), Kenya’s fourth city, Nakuru (8,023), and the western Kenya town of Kisii (7,971).
Kindiki asked the owners of the uncollected passports to go for them within 30 days.
Long waiting period
Until recently, Kenyans complained about the passport waiting period, with some applicants forced to wait for up to three months.
Nairobi, being a densely populated city, attracts a high number of passport applications daily.
In efforts to reduce the waiting period, many residents of the city travel to far-flung towns such as Kisii, Eldoret, Embu and Kisumu, which are less busy, for their passport processing.
In August, Kindiki said there was a backlog of 58,000 passports. He promised to expedite their processing.
On Tuesday, the cabinet secretary did not reveal the amount of money Kenyans will have to part with as fine for failing to collect their passports on time.
