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In 2014, it took 4 months for my wife's Kenyan passport to be renewed. Last year, she applied for a new ID card (to get her new family name on it), and she was

• nojvek 10y ago
  Yeah I've had some bad experiences in Kenya too if you don't pay a bit "extra" to move things forward.
• nsomaru 10y ago
  It used to be like this in South Africa, but they've implemented some new tech and you can get a passport in around a week. The new ID cards are even faster. I suspect this is not appreciated by many in and around the system because there was a whole industry that sprang up around the process (people to stand in lines for you, make the application, etc.) and now it's less likely that a bribe will be offered ;)
  • prance 10y ago
    Well she didn't have to stand in line for the year ;) No seriously, at some of the bigger and more central places in Nairobi you can now pick a number (and take a guess how long that might take, maybe risk going about some business in the meantime). But yes, new tech might help with the actual issuing/processing time. In the past, getting a new passport was a matter of a few weeks[1], but they installed various processes to supposedly enhance security. This is not unfounded, as there has been a lot of counterfeiting going on with IDs and passports, e.g. for elections, immigration (mostly from Somalia), or foreign workers. But as long as better/more efficient systems are in place, I doubt their effectiveness. [1] Even though corruption is rampant in Kenya, it isn't too bad if you're steadfastly refusing to pay bribes.