Nairobi — The Immigration Department has introduced extended business hours in a expedite passport applications amid a rising backlog blamed on corruption and sabotage.
The department will now start receiving passport applications from 7am-9 pm with two shifts deployed to support extended business hours.
The move will mark a departure from the prevailing 8am-5pm working shift.
"We are working hard, the passport section has been working on shifts. We have dedicated counters for urgent cases and all regional heads to boost staff in the urgent counters," said Acting Director General Immigration Department Evelyne Cheluget.
It is estimated that about 60,000 passport applications are pending owing to the frequent breakdown of the printing machine and lack of printing booklets.
The backlog has however been attributed to deep-rooted graft. In parts of the country, for instance, processing of National Identity cards is taking as long as three years.
Parliament has opened an investigation into the alleged cases of graft and backlog of passport applications.
The Immigration Department has also been indicted with the Ombudsman revealing several injustices and malpractices, including over-charging of applicants, in a recent report.
Cheluget announced the planned changes even as Interior Cabinet Secretary termed the Nyayo House passport center a crime scene in a meeting with a House Committee on August 24 vowing to mount a decisive battle against passport cartels he accused of sabotage.
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Kindiki made the remarks while appearing before the House Committee on Regional Integration where he singled out corrupt officials for impeding reforms.
"We have officers there who take bribes while they are supoosed to give Kenyans free services," he said.
"I will clean up Nyayo House once and for all. We will seal off Nyayo House and name it a scene of crime," he stated.
Kindiki disclosed that while measures put in place have seen the processing of passports rise to 5,000 per day (day and night), the current backlog stood at 58,000.
"Some of the challenges we have including insecurity and terrorism, could be as a result of corrupt elements at Nyayo house. If you go to Wajir, 21-year-old applicants are waiting for IDs for 3 years now."
Kindiki's renewed promise to take out cartels at Nyayo House follows a similar commitment on May 31 which appears to have yielded little success.
The Cabinet Secretary had promised at the time to clear 42,000 pending applications by June 30 being twenty-one days after a fixing broken printer at the time.
