President Uhuru Kenyatta has ordered the deadline for Kenyans to acquire the new e-passports to be extended to the 1st of March 2020.
The order from the President to extend the deadline for the e-passports puts a smile in faces of millions of Kenyans who risked being denied leaving the country for failing to renew their passports.
According to a statement released by Government Spokesperson Cyrus Oguna, Kenyans can now travel using the old passports until then.
According to the statement, President Uhuru Kenyatta directed Cabinet Secretaries for Interior and Foreign Affairs to work with Foreign Missions across the world to facilitate the issuance of the new passports to Kenyans.
Interior CS Dr. Fred Matiang’i had told Kenyans that the order would not be extended sending panic among Kenyans who had not renewed their passports.
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Kenyans in their numbers
More than one million Kenyans had applied for their passports to be renewed with the process overwhelming the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
At one time, the government, through the then PS at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Mr. Gordon Kihalangwa, had to tell Kenyans to the passports if only they were planning to leave the country.
Nairobi witnessed long queues as thousands of Kenyans turned up from as early as 4 am to apply or have their old passports turned into the new generational ones.
The government had said that no Kenyan was to be allowed to travel without the new passport but now with the directive from the President, they have a reason to smile.
After the deadline
Government Spokesman Cyrus Oguna has called on Kenyans to take advantage of the extension to apply for the new generational e-passports.
He says the March 1, 2020 will mark the last day for the use of the current passports and Kenyans will not be allowed to travel out of the country without them.