Govt Apologises For Error In Notice Of Increasing Fees For IDs, Passports

Roseline Njogu, the Principal Secretary for Diaspora Affairs, issued an apology on behalf of the government on Wednesday, November 9 over what she termed as a costly error regarding a Gazette Notice which sparked nationwide uproar over the increase of fees for key services.

The Gazette Notice shared with newsrooms had reported that, among others, fees for the issuance of permanent residences for children of Kenyan citizens born outside the country had increased to Ksh1 million.

Furthermore, fees for the processing of permanent residences for children of Kenyan citizens born outside Kenya had doubled to Ksh200,000 from Ksh100,000 while the fees for the issuance of permanent residences for the same children had increased from Ksh500,000.

In a pair of statements on X, Njogu first observed regarding the status of children of Kenyan parents born abroad that as per the Constitution, a child whose mother or father is a Kenyan Citizen, is a citizen by birth.

"They do not need to apply for permanent residency. They can acquire the usual citizenship documents (ID, passport, etc) by applying through the nearest Kenya Embassy or via eCitizen," she revealed.

In addition, she acknowledged that there was an error in terms of keying in the quoted amounts as depicted on the Gazette Notice, a matter she said she had raised with her immigration counterpart, Julius Bitok.

"Further to my last tweet, I have engaged with Julius Bitok PS Immigration & Citizen Services. He has assured me that the Permanent Residence fees for children of Kenyan citizens were entered in error.

"This fee applies to children of foreigners seeking permanent residence. As I had explained, children of a citizen acquire citizenship by birth," she stated in another tweet.

The requirement would have been unconstitutional since Article 14 (1) of the Kenyan Constitution stipulates that "A person is a citizen by birth if on the day of the person's birth, whether or not the person is born in Kenya, either the mother or father of the person is a citizen."

Njogu announced that measures to rectify the Gazette notice have already been taken, further issuing apologies for the mistakes she noted caused so much anxiety.

Moments earlier, the Notice caused a huge storm across the country by highlighting significant increases in fees for acquring and replacing vital government documents ranging from National IDs to birth and death certificates.

In the notice issued by Interior Cabinet Secretary (CS) Kithure Kindiki, the government announced that the fees for replacing identity cards shot up more than 10 times from Ksh100 to Ksh2,000. The government also proposed increasing the fee for first-time ID applicants to Ksh1,000.

Kenyans seeking to change their particulars in their ID card will be forced to part ways with Ksh1,000 while those seeking identification reports will have to pay Ksh1,000 up from Ksh300.

Furthermore, the charges for acquiring a birth certificate were raised from Ksh50 to Ksh200, the same as acquiring a death certificate.

Late registration of a birth certificate will now cost you Ksh500 from Ksh150 which also applies to the late registration of a death certificate.

The government also raised the fees for ordinary passports from Ksh4,500 to Ksh7,500, for an ordinary 34-page passport.

For a 50-page passport, the price has been reviewed upward from Ksh6,000 to Ksh9,500. For a 66-page passport, the price increased from Ksh7,500 to Ksh12,000.