Help us get our passports, Mombasa residents call on Kindiki
Mombasa residents are expressing their frustration and calling on Interior Security Cabinet Secretary (CS) Kithure Kindiki, to help them collect their passports from the Immigration Department in the coast region.
Residents reported receiving messages instructing them to collect their passports from the offices on September 22, but they claim they were denied access to their documents.
The applicants alleged that they were asked to pay Ksh 5,000 to “agents” in order to obtain their passports, and questioned whether CS Kindiki was aware of these ongoing passport agent issues.

“We have not been attended to since six in the morning, and we do not know where the problem lies,” one resident of the area lamented.
Another resident mentioned, “Our President told us we have three options: we leave the country, go to jail, or get arrested. We chose to leave the country, but our passports aren’t ready yet.”
The head of the Coast Province headquarters of the Immigration department, Mr. James, stated that there were 8,000 passports ready, and they are actively addressing the issue, urging residents to be patient.
This protest by Mombasa residents follows Interior CS Kithure Kindiki’s recent statement that the passport backlog at Nyayo House had been resolved. However, he acknowledged challenges related to producing and delivering a significant number of passports.

“That backlog which was in the upward of over 120,000 passports has been technically addressed. It has been resolved,” Kindiki said. “In the process of resolving that backlog, we discovered that when we started addressing this challenge and started production of a significant number of passports.”
The situation in Mombasa suggests ongoing challenges in the passport issuance process, despite the government’s efforts to address the backlog.
VIDEO BY WACHIRA MWANGI