Ministry of Internal Affairs has announced that it will halt issuing of ordinary passports unless there is an emergency case such as patients seeking treatment abroad or people travelling to conduct government business and students who get foreign scholarships.
The Ministry says those who do not fit into the above category will have to wait longer, to get a passport once they apply for it.
In a statement issued on June 13, the Ministry of Internal Affairs attributed the shortage partly to the impending switch from ‘machine readable passports to electronic passports’.
However the spokesperson of the Directorate of Immigration and Citizenship, Jacob Siminyu, has said the directorate is addressing the matter and projected that the shortage will be resolved within the next one month.
“The stock the directorate currently has is “enough to cater for all the emergency cases for the next one month,” Simunyu said.
