The Government has on Monday extended the deadline for phasing out of the old ordinary passports to the new generation e-passport until March 1st 2021.
The Ministry of Interior and Coordination of National Government said that the move is due to the fact that over 1.8 million Kenyans mostly in the diaspora are yet to replace their old passports with the East African Community bio-metric e-passport.
“Due to this 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,” said CS for Interior Dr Matiang’i.
“Considering this is the second extension, the 1.8 million Kenyans still holding the dark blue passport are urged to take full advantage of this period to acquire the EAC-format electronic passports at the earliest opportunity possible, to avoid the last-minute rush, unnecessary jam-ups at the centres, and travelling inconveniences,” Matiang’i added.
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In the meantime, the government has set up and operationalized four passport control centres in Nakuru, Kisii, Eldoret and Embu and six others in the diaspora.
The Government has also set up other centres in Europe; Berlin, Paris and London, one in the United States (Wahington DC) in South Africa and Dubai.
The Government says that plans are also underway to achieve same-day issuance of passports by July 1, 2020.