Gov’t to Cut ID Processing Time to 10 days, PS Bitok Says 

Kenyans in need of new ID cards will get the document within ten days beginning next month.

Immigration and Citizen Services Principal Secretary Julius Bitok said the shorter waiting period will be made possible by the roll out of live capture equipment in Huduma Centers and National Registration Bureau (NRB) county offices countrywide.

The fast-tracking of IDs will also ride on the enhanced printing capacity at the NRB after it recently acquired two printers.

“It will now take you not more than ten working days from the date of application down from at least 21 days to get your ID. We want Kenyans to acquire their IDs as quickly and conveniently as possible.”

He was speaking at Katoloni, Machakos County during this year’s World ID celebrations. The annual event is commemorated on September 16 to acknowledge the importance of the national ID and other registration documents.

The Machakos event was marked with on-spot registration for IDs, birth certificates, certificates of good conduct among other documents.

The choice of Machakos as a venue for this year’s festivities was informed by a high number of eligible ID registration applicants with at least 32,000 youth deemed due for registration.

Currently, Machakos County boasts birth and death registration rates of 78 percent and 43 percent respectively.

The PS further promised that the government will consider the request from the local leaders for the establishment of an Immigration office to ease access to passports and other travel documents.

Machakos MP,  Caleb Mule appealed to the government to also open more NRB and the Civil Registration Services (CRS) offices to spare residents from travelling long distances in search of services.

“Our citizens are commuting long distances in search of identity documents. For instance residents of Machakos, Makueni, Kajiado and Kitui counties currently face the burden of travelling to Embu or Nairobi for passports which is costly and time consuming.”