The government has extended the deadline for the old passport replacement to March 2021.
The announcement was made on Monday morning (24.02.2020) by Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiangi, who said that 1.8 million Kenyans are yet to apply for the second generation e-passport.
“Due to this, the government extends the deadline for voiding the current dark blue machine-readable passport by 12 months,” Matiangi said in a statement.
In July 2019, President Uhuru Kenyatta had ordered the extension for the use of the old passports from the previous deadline of September 2019 following a last-minute rush and travelling inconveniencies.
“The government hereby extends the deadline for voiding the current dark blue machine-readable passport by 12 months. As such, its holders may continue using it until March 1, 2021, when it will no longer be valid for travelling,” part of the statement noted.
The Government also announced plans to achieve the issuance of passports in a day by July 2021.
In order to ease passport replacement, the Government has set up four passport control centres in Nakuru, Kisii, Eldoret and Embu, and six others in the diaspora.
Kenyans in Europe can replace their passport in Berlin, Paris and London, those in the U.S. can get their travel document in Washington DC. Johannesburg, South Africa and Dubai also have control centres.
The new generation passport was launched on August 31, 2018, replacing the readable East African and ordinary passport in accordance with the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) specifications.
It also has enhanced security features embedded in an electronic chip to minimize fraud, identity theft, forgery and passport skimming.
This article was first published by Capital News.
