People queue at Department of Immigration Services office at Nyayo House in Nairobi for application and renewal of passports. PHOTO | EVANS HABIL
I recently went to the Immigration Department offices in Nyayo House, Nairobi with my teenage children to renew their passports. It was in the afternoon and we found a long queue and officers there asked us to return the following day but as early as 6.30 a.m if we wanted quick service.
We returned the following morning at 7.45 a.m only to be greeted by another long queue that stretched all the way round the building.
Thus began the nightmare. We queued for four hours outside the building and even when we got inside, it took us two more hours to get to the officer receiving our applications. Only those with toddlers, the sick and elderly were exempted from queuing.
Then came more misery of having to wait for three months before the renewed passports would be delivered back to us.
Painfully my children had to miss scheduled visa interviews because their passports weren’t ready on time. My daughter’s case was even worse because her document “vanished” in the dispatch section yet the applications were submitted together.
Woe to those who have imminent travel plans!
The process of checking the status/collection is tedious as you also have to queue with the new applicants.
In such chaos corruption thrives and we could see clear evidence of people being let in who should have been on the queue.
Yet interestingly when I renewed my passport in June 2017 there were no queues and I got it within five days.
We were advised that the current crisis is due to the rush for the new digital passports and the frequent breakdowns of the printers, which require external support to fix them!
Clearly something needs to be done.
For starters, the application process needs to be fully automated so that forms and photographs are submitted online. One should only go to Nyayo House to have the digital photograph and fingerprints taken and to collect the new passport.
Applicants should be given dates for collection, which should be adhered to and the checking process should also be automated so that you can check the status on the portal (though it is also possible to check on Twitter but they take time to respond) An alert should be sent by text/email once the passport is ready.
In the meantime, people checking or collecting passports should queue separately and checking can even be done outside at desks positioned there.
Maintenance of the printers should be localised to prevent delays from breakdowns and more printers should be deployed to deal with backlogs.
There should also be an option to fast track urgent applications e.g for an additional fee. This will also reduce the cases of corruption and earn revenue for the government.
More staff need to be deployed at the passport section to handle the backlog, though to give them credit the staff were all very friendly and helpful despite the challenges they faced.
Wangari Buku, Nairobi
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