The Cabinet Secretary for Interior and National Administration Prof Kithure Kindiki has warned idlers marauding in the department of immigration to be dealt at ruthlessly
Speaking on Tuesday 19th September after presiding over the signing of performance contract in the said department, CS noted issued a warning shot to few public officers conspiring with the imposters to con unsuspecting Kenyans seeking the most crucial documents
“We have very diligent officers working even during at night but want to warn those pretending to help members of public to get passports will be weeded out. There are also few officers taking bribes to tarnish the good reputation of the immigration department and we shall get rid of them,” Kithure declared war to end perennial reported corruption at the immigration department
Passports backlog cleared
Acknowledging the problems in issuance of passports, the best ranking CS, observed that the delays have been contributed to lack of functional equipments and warn out printers
He said that it was regrettable for the department to remain deplorable condition whereas it has been contributing more than Sh10 Billion revenues annually to the exchequre
“We have bought new printers and repaired passport printer. Out of the backlog of 120,000 passports, we have managed to remain with 87, 574 that should be collected as from 25th Monday, September.
Even in our regional offices we have produced a lot of passports without being delivered,” Kithure announced while explaining how men and women in the immigration department have changed after the launch of Rapid Results Initiative, which he declared to end perennial reported corruption at Nyayo House
The CS, also told members of the public that in an efforts to ensure efficient and effective service delivery, they have integrated customer personalized platform where applicants will be getting short code messages from Monday to Friday informing them when to receive their passports and which region to pick it from.
“As from Wednesday, members of public will receive messages on the availability of the passports, we have already improved on our customer care desk even training some of our staffs to improve smooth and public service delivery,” He reiterated
How to enable convenient delivery of passports countrywide
Prof noted that they have entered good working relationship with the Poster Kenya-to help them deliver some of the passports in the remote areas to avoid delays.
“My team will work day and night within seven days to ensure all passports have been released and collected in different regions within our country. And we shall do an audit to check whether they have been picked by respective passport holders,”
However, the security boss, also warned prospected passport applicants that they will apply the best international standards and procedures methods to penalize those who will fail to collect their crucial documents once produced with possibility of applying afresh after one’s document recalled
“There will be a penalty for those who will not collect their passports within the stipulated time and after the expiry of the grace period guaranteed under the international standards,” He disclosed while stating that government can not afford to go loss to serve some of the people in the society who are jokers
While flanked by the host, Immigration Permanent Secretary Ambassador Prof. Julius Bitok, Kithure noted that they have also invested in better customer care services, by also incorporating officers from National Youth Services to help in managing customer care desk
Breakdown of already produced passports after the launch of Rapid Results Initiative [RRI]
Nairobi region 36, 170 passports
Embu 10, 409 passports
Eldoret 9, 938
Kisumu 9, 515
Nakuru 9,023
Kisii 7,097 and
Mombasa 5421