[SIZE=6]Agony and scramble for digital passports as deadline looms[/SIZE]
FRIDAY JUNE 21 2019
The agony to acquire new e-passports ahead of the August 31 deadline continued on Friday with long queues witnessed at Nyayo House in Nairobi.
Kenyans had started to arrive at Nyayo House by 3.30am, fighting the cold of the dawn in a process that has now become a nightmare for thousands of applicants.
When Nation visited Nyayo House at 5am, more than 700 people were already queuing outside long before the gates could be opened.
The gates to the centre swing open at 6am but service delivery starts at 8am, the opening hour for all government offices.
The problem with Kenyans is last minuters. They had all the time but they never bothered because the old passport was still valid.
Wait untill NTSA scraps out renewal of Red Booklet aka old lisences, utaona madereva wakikimbizana na Digital the same way here. I always say that if your license is nearing expiry date, start organising for new Digital License, otherwise utalilia kwa line.
Passport is your right…you can apply for it anytime! I think the problem may be that after the deadline, you will not be allowed to travel using the old passport. So if one is not planning to travel anytime soon and does not have the urgency of recurring adhoc work related travels, there is really no need for one to scramble to replace your old passport with these kinds of crowds; I think there may be a bit of misunderstanding here…people think that just because iko deadline , hutaweza replace passport tena thereafter vile umesema hapo juu “walipewa deadline” huduma namba style. Kwani those people issuing passports watamaliza kazi wafukuzwe?? Halafu after all that struggle, unareplace the passport unaiweka kwa drawer for the next 4 years ukijisifu vile uko na new passport and zero travel.
Then wanachukua ya the whole family, all 11 of them! Why? The farthest they have traveled from Muriranjas is Molo for ruracio. This is a waste of resources. I know the GoK can manage this process better but it is not willing to do so.
These are the few situations when I am very tempted and motivated to TKK. I need a reliable insider/broker at Immigration… I simply cannot queue at 3am at Nyayo.
This thing of Epassport is stressing…Looks like I will have to cancel my intended trip to kenya in August . Is there a tip on how to get the passport within a month or in three weeks. The kenyan embassy in Berlin is quiet on this issue. they are yet to start the service.