Immigration and Citizen Service Principal Secretary Julius Bitok has said that the government will issue approximately  three million digital National IDs in a bid to ease the process of Kenyans  accessing registration documents.

In the same mission the government also looks at doubling the number of passports targeted to be issued this year to at least one million as it hopes to raise the revenue generated from the eCitizen digital platform.

“We believe these are realistic targets based on the strategic improvements and investments that we have made to our vital personal registration and documentation systems.”

“The new passports target is nearly double the 533,000 issued in the previous year with the higher output pegged on the combined printing capacity of 600 passports per hour by the new machines. Their installation is expected to reduce the waiting time for issuing passports to less than 14 working days,” Bitok said.

Speaking in Mombasa during the annual planning meeting of senior managers for agencies and directorates under the State Department  Bitok said two new passport printing machines have already been delivered for installation in Nyayo House.

“We will be commissioning the new printers next week. We are determined to render delays in the issuance of passports a thing of the past as we have secured the necessary resources to procure sufficient booklets and other recurrent expenses.”

So as make it easier for Kenyans to access  passports, permits and other services, the Directorate of Immigration also plans to open new facilities.

The new offices will be  in Nyeri, Bungoma and Garissa and invest in government-owned passport and border management systems to provide real-time data on the entry and exit of all travellers.

In the same period, the government hopes to issue 1.2 million digital National ID cards to first-time applicants and 1.6 million duplicate IDs to build on to the 733,000 Maisha cards it has issued so far.