The Kenyan government has issued new directives ahead of the November 30 deadline for phasing out of the old-generation Kenyan passports.
According to a statement from the Director General of the Department of Immigration Services, Alexander Muteshi, Kenyans can still renew their passports even after the deadline.
“Kenya will migrate fully to using the new EAC Community passport on December 1. However, renewal and replacement of the old generation Kenya passport will continue normally in all our passport application centres locally and in our missions after this deadline,” Muteshi clarified.
Read: Government Sets New Deadline For Acquisition Of Biometric Passports
The new passport will come with new features, such as enabling unrestricted travel within East Africa for citizens of EAC member states. The full migration, which was first suggested in 2016, was delayed, among other things, by the COVID-19 Pandemic that resulted in the closure of the majority of government offices.
Kenyans can apply for the new passport physically at immigration offices across the nation and online using their e-citizen accounts. Kenya implemented the e-passport program in September 2017 in accordance with the East African Community Summit resolution and International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) document 9303.
The EAC Council of Ministers decided to phase out old-generation passports for all member states by November 2022 at a meeting held in Arusha in November 2021. The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), which established the standards, mandates that all new e-passports carry a tamper-proof electronic chip containing the personal data and travel records of the holder.
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To combat widespread fraud and impersonation of holders, Kenya issued new chip-embedded passports to its residents. The new Kenyan passport cannot be faked or duplicated, according to the government, thanks to the enhanced security features.
With the introduction of the 10-year validity e-passports, the old passports that had been in use since independence come to an end. Kenya now joins the more than 60 other nations that now utilize new passports.
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