The Immigration Department on Tuesday explained why Kenyans are unable to apply and collect their passports.
In a statement seen by Star, the department said it is currently experiencing a downtime, in its passport application receiving system, as well as the collection service.
"We regret to inform our clients that we are currently experiencing a downtime that has affected our normal passport application receiving and collection services," Immigration said on X.
"Our engineers are working to resolve the issue and ensure the resumption of normal services as soon as possible."
The department further said that all affected applicants will be provided with alternative dates as soon as possible.
"We apologize for the inconvenience caused."
The Immigration system downtime comes a few days after they announced that they had acquired two new passport printing machines.
The new printers, according to the government would help in clearing the passport backlog, as well as make the the processing of the travel document faster.
On April 22, Interior CS Kithure Kindiki said the government had also facilitated the acquisition of adequate passport printing equipment, paid all the pending supplier bills, and addressed the supply chain constraints.
These, he said, had impeded faster processing of passports.
He noted that the backlog of pending passports which stood at 724,000 by March 11, 2024, had been resolved, and the 50,000 applications that were pending by April 18 were ready for delivery.
Kindiki added that effective May 1, 2024, all passport applications will be processed within 21 days from the date of application.
He added that the period will reduce gradually to seven days from August 1, 2024 and then to 3 days from September 1, 2024.
