Discovery of an elaborate plot by a group of senior members of the executive to set up a parallel passport issuing mechanism has set off an acrimonious fall out between Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki and his senior staff, with President William Ruto reportedly weighing in with an ultimatum to the immigration officials to shape up or ship out lest they compromise national security.

After Tellreported last week how Kenya had been turned into a staging ground for human smuggling and trafficking, a number of senior servants volunteered details of how and why Prof Kindiki declared the department of immigration headquarters at Nyayo House in Nairobi “scene of crime”. The decision was informed by intelligence that subordinates in the registrar of persons’ office, which issues national identity cards and the department of immigration, were raking in millions from issuance of passports to foreigners at the expense deserving Kenyans.

While Prof Kindiki has raised the issue with President Ruto, Tellwas informed that the cabinet secretary faces a herculean task of ejecting the suspects from the system as many of the officers named in the passport scandal come from the president’s backyard in Rift Valley, while others have been allies of the president from the time fell out with Raila Odinga after the 2007 disputed elections and was appointed in the ministry of agriculture.

The clique that surrounded Ruto even before he became president are having their day in the sun and are in hurry to make hay while the sun the shines, our source Prof Kindiki’s office says.

“The acrimonious falling out between Kindiki and his senior staff is likely to result in sackings. The president is seized of the matter is said to have warned the principal secretaries, a cabinet secretary and a recently appointed senior NIS officer implicated in the scandal. I recall the time this year when Al Shabaab bombed communication masks in Mandera. The president was informed when he was in London. He immediately called him the CS (name withheld) and warned against flooding the country with his kin from Somalia,” our source, with extensive knowledge of government affairs revealed.

The cabinet secretary and the NIS senior have in the past been adversely named in the Westgate and Dusit terrorist attacks, but were cleared of criminal offences. The other official said to be behind the parallel passports office was tapped from the diplomatic world and is reportedly building a war-chest to run for a gubernatorial seat in 2027.

The revelations come on the back of warnings raised by Managing Director of Personal Security Services George Musamali that Kenya was hurtling towards self-destruction following the embedment of foreign criminals in government. The pork barrelling by drug and human traffickers offers the criminals who sometimes pose as senior officials of  United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) offers huge incentive for fast-tracking travel documents for refugees.

Further, the disbandment of border security committees by President Ruto provides a field day for transnational criminals, a senior official at the immigration office says. He says border security committees helped to weed out aliens. The powers of the committees have been transferred to National Intelligence Service officers who lack the wherewithal to determine nationality, according to the officers at the registrar of persons and immigration offices.

“We are under pressure to fast-track travel documents for foreigners. In April this year, a principal secretary (name withheld) came in the office with 1,200 passport applications and gave orders that they should be ready in three days. Once done, he went with the passports to Eldoret. The names on the passports were not Kenyan,” the officer says.

Kakuma camp in Turkana county has been turned into a holding ground for aliens before they are processed as Kenyan citizens or facilitated to travel out the country in Kenyan passport. On the other hand, Kakamega leads in registration of aliens seeking national identity cards, followed by Mandera and Garissa.

A senior officer at the registrar of persons office in Nairobi explained that the choice of Kakamega and Kakuma to facilitate the stay of aliens in Kenya is strategic: they minimise suspicion of a crime. Mr Musamali concurs and explains that Ugandans, Congolese, South Sudanese, Rwandans and Central Africa Republic citizens prefer western Kenya as entry points.

“Take note that all ministries that handle the security of the nation are headed leaders from border communities. It is difficult to vet applications because it is processed by one officer from the National Intelligence Service (NIS). Most of the NIS staff lack the capacity to do what was previously done by Supkem, immigration, local leadership, the church and police. The number of national documents we are processing for foreigners is massive. They are given priority over deserving Kenyans because they hefty sums of money, sometimes as high Ksh400,000 per application,” says the official.

he Weely Review is in possession an intelligence report of how perpetrators of human trafficking and passport ‘brokers’ use government facilities. This month (October 7) for instance, 13 Ethiopians and Eritreans who entered the country via Moyale border and were being ferried to Kakuma – over 1,000 kilometres apart – to start the process of ID card and passport acquisition. Shown the list, the senior interior official revealed that the list is one of the many Kindiki has received in intelligence that implicate his senior staff and cabinet colleagues. The intelligence report reads:

SUBJECT: ARREST OF POLICE OFFICERS/ALIENS

Ref my O.B.11 of 07/10/2023. Please be informed that this evening at about 1900 hrs, we received an intel report that an AP Land Cruiser was ferrying aliens from Lokori, heading towards Lokichar. Immediately a team comprising the Regular Police from Lokichar Police Station and DCI Turkana South headed by both C.I Calvins Nyapara and IP Naftali Makori respectively, laid ambush and later intercepted the suspected m/v near Town Chini area of Lokichar, about 1km East of the station. On searching at the back of the said m/v, Reg no. GK B 220Y Toyota Land Cruiser belonging to BPU Todonyang and driven by No. 252013 APC Joseph Muriuki of BPU Todonyang, accompanied by No. 260776 APC Stephen Arigelle of CIPU Nanyuki, 13 aliens of different nationalities were found seated inside.”

The  report names the 13 Eritreans and Ethiopians and concludes:

“All the aliens, the m/v driver and his colleague were searched and placed in cells without any complaint. Also the driver surrendered his AK 47 rifle, body no. 10906, 3 loaded magazines, a C of A,  Work Ticket and the L/Cruiser’s ignition key. The m/v detained at the station compound. Case PUI. DCI Turkana South dealing.”

The beef between Prof Kindiki extends to the whereabouts of Ksh650 million set aside in past budgets for a new passports printer.

Mr Musamali warns that President Ruto is recalcitrant in arresting a crisis that is spiralling out of control as UN agencies and international non-governmental organisations (NGOs) rule the roost.

“We face a situation in Kenya where foreigners, including mercenaries, are running the show. The refugee camps in Kakuma and Dadaab are stopovers for foreigners looking for Kenyan citizenship or passports,” he warns.

In an intriguing turn of events, it has emerged that passport applications awaiting processing at the department of immigration standards at a staggering 400,000, nearly five times above the 84,000 backlog announced by CS Kindiki last month. The 84,000 cited by the CS were documents that were ready for printing, the officers clarified.

The backlog is expected to rise further following revelations that the department had run out of passport books and the ageing machine used to print passports had broken down. The old printer had been stretched to print 3,500 passports per day – beyond its 800 per day capacity.

As the department grapples with rising incidence of alien registration, the searchlight has turned on to the former office holders: former cabinet secretary Fred Matiang’i, former Principal Secretary Karanja Kibicho and former Director-General of Immigration Alexander Muteshi.

Two years before they left office in 2022, Ksh650 million in the budget had been allocated to acquisition of a modern passport printing machine. However, the funds vanished and the resultant inefficiency is said to suit the fiddlers at immigration who demand hefty bribes to facilitate issuance of ID cards and passports to foreigners.

“Everyone from the procurement section to the executive shirk responsibility; they are not willing pull their weight. There is too much buck-passing creating an environment where cartels are thriving. Around April for instance a principal secretary directed that 1,200 passport application be fast-tracked, which was done three days and the documents taken to unknown people in Eldoret. He never considered that there were deserving Kenyans who needed the documents urgently to travel abroad for health reasons and others for studies abroad. These deserving Kenyans were bypassed and foreigners given priority,” reveals the immigration officer.

When the allegations were brought to the attention of the principals secretary for Internal Security (administration) Raymond Omollo, he was non-committal and deferred the question to his counterpart in the ministry, Prof Julius Bitok.

“I know something is being done to clear the passport backlog. We’re in the process of acquiring a new passport printing machine. For the other questions, I prefer you ask Prof Bitok. I will ask him to call you,” responded Mr Omollo.

Prof Bitok did not call; neither could he be reached by phone.

Reacting to allegations that his office is responsible for the passport application pile-up, former Principal Secretary Karanja Kibicho distanced himself from the mess at the immigration office. However, he concedes that current haphazard issuance of national IDs and passports is a national security risk.

“Government is perpetual. But office holders come and go. If I am being accused of anything, I should be given access to the records I left in the office and the officers I worked with. There is a procurement committee in every ministry that makes decisions that are in turn vetted by parliament. Anybody can  track the movement of the funds,” explained Kibicho.

The former principal secretary also explained that budget reallocations occur in government up to the last week of the financial year and it is possible the funds for the passport printer may have been spent on a more urgent item.

Alexander Muteshi steered clear of the controversy and registration of aliens: “Go ahead with the information you have and publicize (sic)…I will not make any response. Publish whatever you have (sic).”

Tell had called the immigration director-general for a right of rely on allegations he cleared applications by aliens without scrutinising the application and vetting reports. Muteshi, a former director of counter-terrorism, has been accused by staff of turning his office into a passport processing centre.

• A Tell report