Time flies with great content! Renew in to keep enjoying all our premium content.
Prime
Immigration gets Sh6bn more for passport and ID processing
Additional funding for the Immigration Department comes amid the elevated demand for key travel documents such as passports as Kenyans pursue job and education opportunities abroad.
The Treasury has apportioned an additional Sh5.9 billion to the State Department of Immigration and Citizen Services to boost the issuance of key documents, including e-passports, electronic travel authorisation, and third-generation identity cards.
The additional funds provided through the newly tabled supplementary budget would raise the department’s overall budget for the current financial year to Sh20.1 billion, up from Sh14.3 billion currently.
The added funding for the Immigration Department comes amid the elevated demand for key travel documents such as passports as Kenyans pursue job and education opportunities abroad.
“The approved estimates have been revised from Sh14.3 billion to Sh20.1 billion under the financial year 20204/25 supplementary estimates no. II reflecting an increase of Sh5.9 billion on account of the shortfall on personal emolument, e-citizen services, electronic travel authorization system (eTA), third generation identity cards and e-passports,” the National Treasury indicates in the supplementary budget estimates.
Subsequently, the Exchequer has raised targets for the Immigration State Department, including on the maintenance of the eTA system.
The department is also expected to double its purchase of passport booklets from the expected one million to two million while e-Citizen ICT services are expected to onboard an additional 4,000 services to hit the goal of 15,000 onboarded government services by June from the previous target of 11,000.
Other revised key performance indicators for the department include the full system roll-out of the National Registration of Persons Bureau.
Immigration services and e-Citizen services are expected to split the bulk of the additional allocation, taking Sh3.5 billion and Sh2 billion respectively from the additional allocation.
The National Registration Bureau and the Civil Registration Services will meanwhile receive Sh115.9 million and Sh100 million each.
The balance of Sh125 million is expected to support general administration and planning.
The Directorate of Immigration has an estimated daily demand of 5,000 passport applications revealing the underlying demand for travel and other official documents by Kenyans.
The increased purchase of more passport booklets is, for instance, expected to reduce the persistent backlog of passport processing which has previously been partly blamed on the lack of booklets and system glitches.
Some 426,137 passports were issued in 2022 in contrast to a low of 129,090 in 2020 when the pandemic disrupted both passport applications and processing.
In March last year, the then Interior Cabinet Secretary Prof. Kithure Kindiki told Parliament that the immigration department required three million passport booklets every 90 days against an available supply of just 1.5 million.
