Nairobi — The Commission on Administrative Justice, also known as the Ombudsman, want the department of immigration to refund all passport applicants who were overcharged for passport.
Speaking during the launch of the report outlining irregularities in passport application procedure, the chairperson of the Commission Florence Kajuju said that the call to refund was reached after investigations revealed there was lack of suitable mechanisms to automate the refund of excess payments made by passport applicants.
"Many Kenyans lost their money when they falsely paid more money while applying for passports through the eCitizen platform. You cannot say that you do not require policy guidelines, yet you are setting up a system that then there are emerging challenges like refund mechanism," she said.
"The Commission undertook investigations into allegations that the Department of Immigration was overcharging citizens for passports. The investigation was triggered by several complaints made on social media."
Kajuju advised the Ministry of Interior led by Kithure Kindiki to increase budgetary allocation to the department.
According to Kajuju, the funds will allow the Department of Immigration Services to purchase new high-capacity passport printing machines, and service the old passport printing machines.
"The new machines will be a solution to the delays in the processing of passports because of the continuous breakdown of printing machines reported by the department," she added.
In the report released, it noted that some applicants who had paid for a "B" series passport, which contained 50 pages, were issued with the 'A' series passports of 34 pages.
"All complaints alleging overcharging of passport fees were found to be true while the Department of Immigration's allegation that the complainants edited their application to a lower series was found to be false," stated the report.
"It was confirmed that the seven complainants applied for "B" series passports, which were the only options at the time, and paid KSh 6,050, but were instead issued "A" series passports."
The Ombudsman also noted that the immigration department lacked policies to guide employees on matters that arise from the application process including cancellation of an application.
"The department lacked an internal policy or procedure to guide and regulate issues that may arise during passport processing, such as application editing and cancellation," added Ombudsman.
The call for refund by the Ombudsman comes after the Immigration Department on Tuesday in a statement on Tuesday for the second time stating that it was experiencing a shortage of printing materials.
The announcement came amid uproar by Kenyans over the delays in acquiring passports at the hands of the constantly faulty machine, the government's laxity in addressing the matter is now raising more questions than answers.
Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki on May 31 promised the restoration of a broken passport printer within seven days, committing to the clearing of the current backlog by June 30.
Kindiki told news reporters that some 42,000 pending applications will be cleared within twenty-one days once the printing hitch is fixed.
Speaking while giving his second public accountability statement, Kindiki acknowledged that the breakdown had caused delays, with some applicants waiting for several months to receive their passports.
"We have taken urgent remedial measure to correct that problem. I plead for patience and within 7 days, we will restore the broken equipment and we already have stocks that arrived on Friday which can help us clear the backlog and help us with the normal ongoing applications," Kindiki said.
Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters
Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox
He added that the Immigration Department will process new passport applications within seven days once the backlog is cleared.
Kindiki further committed to the processing of emergency applications within 24 hours.
The Interior CS said he had received complaints from some members of the public who have expressed frustrations regarding immigration officials who have asked for bribes to fast track their applications.
He added that the government will make far-reaching administrative changes within the Department of Immigration to "make sure that we make it impossible for any person to ask for a bribe from a Kenyan to provide passport services."
The Interior CS put corrupt immigrations officials on notice saying they will face the law.
"Any person within our offices who is giving the government a bad name, we will just treat you as a criminal. In my many responsibilities, I am going to supervise that exercise myself," he warned.
