Passport issuance dropped 5.2 per cent in 2023 - KNBS report

Passport issuance in Kenya declined by 5.2 per cent last year, according to the 2024 Economic Survey report by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS).

The report released on May 20 says the immigration department issued 404,028 passports, compared to 426,137 in 2022.

Despite the drop in overall issuance, the number of travel documents that were processed and issued increased by 3.6 per cent (male) and 12.2 per cent (female).

"In 2023, males who received their passports [numbered] 195,477 while females were 208,551," reads the report.

In 2022, the number of males who got their passports stood at 195,477, while the number of females was 208,551.

Many challenges

The decrease in the issuance of passports was occasioned by the frequent breakdown of printing machines and a shortage of booklets. Incidents were recorded at Nyayo House in Nairobi in June last year and in the same month this year.

In March, Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki revealed that 724,000 passports were part of a backlog recorded between June 2021 and March 2024.

To address the issue, in April 2024, the government acquired two new printers to increase production.

CS Kindiki later said that from May 1, it would only take 21 days to process passports from the date of application. Kindiki said that the period would further be reduced to three days from September 1, 2024.

He also noted that the high number of pending passports, which stood at 724,000 as of March 11, had effectively reduced to less than 50,000.

As of May 13, 2024, 684,500 of them had already been collected by their holders.

National IDs

At the same time, the KNBS reported that the number of applications for national identity cards increased from 1.21 million in 2022 to 1.28 million last year.

The survey further revealed that in the period under review, there was an increase in the number of registered foreign nationals.

'The number of registered foreign nationals increased by 62.2 per cent to 37, 603 in the same period," reads the survey in part.

The latest development in ID issuance includes an April announcement by President William Ruto of the abolishment of vetting for IDs to make the process easier for communities that had complained of imagination despite their right to the document.

The directive took effect on May 1.

"Every Kenyan should be treated equally. We have changed the old policy and have concluded the policy documents. Beginning May this year, there will no longer be vetting for people who want to get their IDs," the president told Muslim leaders during an Iftar dinner at the State House in Nairobi, at the end of the holy month of Ramadan.

Vetting became a requirement for issuing ID and birth certificates in Northern Kenya following the Shifta insurgency of the 1960s, which the Northern Kenya communities viewed as ethnic profiling and discrimination.

Last year, however, the government embarked on steps to address historical registration challenges in northeastern Kenya and surrounding counties to ensure residents in the region receive national IDs.

Immigration and Citizen Services Principal Secretary Julius Bitok said the government would review policies on the mandatory vetting of residents in Tana River, Isiolo, Marsabit, Garissa, Wajir, and Mandera counties, which had been a condition for issuing IDs and other registration documents.