Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang'i displays
the e-passport launched at the Nairobi immigration offices on August 31,
2017. PHOTO | MARTIN MUKANGU | NATION MEDIA GROUP
The US government will not give visas to Kenyans with old
passports, the embassy said on Tuesday, signalling another round of the
rush for the electronic travel documents.
In
response to an inquiry by a would-be traveller, the US Embassy in
Nairobi said only those with e-passports will be considered for visas,
making the US the first major Western power to demand the new type of
travel document.
“We can only place a
US visa in a new passport. You may make an appointment with your
current passport but you will need to obtain an e-passport before we can
issue a visa,” a spokesperson at the embassy said on Tuesday.
Those
with valid visas but in old passports will not be allowed into the US
unless they carry with them e-passports, the spokesperson said.
PRESSURE
The
move adds pressure, especially on government officials, as Head of
Public Service Joseph Kinyua banned foreign travel by officials yet to
obtain the new passports.
Last week, Foreign Affairs Principal Secretary
Macharia Kamau said his office would not endorse visa applications for
senior government officials without the e-passport.
Launched in 2017, the e-passport was to be fully in place by August 31 to allow phasing out of the old documents.
But
in December2018, Deputy President William Ruto said the deadline would
be pushed to 2020 to allow more Kenyans to apply for the document.
DIASPORA COMPLAINTS
By January, about 400,000 Kenyans had obtained the e-passport, but one could still travel using the old document.
The
Immigration Department, accused of lack of service by Kenyans in the
diaspora, has struggled to meet the demand at home, leading to long
queues.
The Interior ministry had
announced that there might be passport application centres in London in
the UK, Paris in France, Washington, DC in US and Pretoria in South
Africa.
Other centres were to be in Dubai and Berlin. However, Kenyans living in these countries recently complained to the Nation that they were still forced to come back home for the new passport.
TRAVEL FRAUD
Embedded
with an electronic chip, the e-passport is part of global efforts to
curb travel fraud by making it harder to forge a passport.
For
East Africa, countries agreed to have a blue cover passport to
symbolise the shared Lake Victoria and the unity of the East African
Community.
It comes with a data page
as the old one, but carries a chip with details of the holder,
preventing the damage the old one was prone to.
Once fully in place, some travellers may be able to self-clear at airports.
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