Sh1.4 Billion Visa Stickers, Passports Missing at Kenya's Foreign Embassies

Foreign Affairs and Interior ministries are on the spot over missing visa stickers and passports worth a whooping Sh1.4 billion.

Appearing before Parliament, Interior Principal Secretary Karanja Kibicho shifted the blame to the Foreign ministry, noting that it should account for visa stickers worth Sh2.73 billion, blank passports (Sh202.5 million) and printed passports of Sh65.9 million it received from his ministry in the two years to June 2015.

In a report, Auditor-General Edward Ouko said the Department of Immigration only accounted for Sh1.5 billion passports and stickers against the Sh2.9 billion given to the embassies for the two items.

He said Sh1.4 billion of visa stickers and passports from several Kenyan embassies abroad could not be accounted for.

“In view of the above, the Sh2.9 billion ought to have been reported and accounted for as appropriations in aid by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in its statements of assets and liabilities among other receipts for services rendered at the missions,” said Dr Kibicho in submissions to the Public Accounts Committee.

The PS said the Department of Immigration purchased the stickers and passports for use at the entry points in the country and in foreign missions and delivered them to Foreign ministry.

“The visa stickers used in the missions are issued to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs upon requisition who in turn issue the same to Kenyan missions abroad for use,” he said.

The stickers are issued to foreign citizens who need visas to enter Kenya, while the passports are given to Kenyans in the diaspora at the embassies. The Auditor-General said there are no records to prove the passports and visas were issued.

“The passports were not recorded at the embassies counter receipt book registers and also not produced for physical audit verification,” said Ouko.

PS Kibicho told the parliamentary committee that Washington DC, London, Dubai, Pretoria and Berlin were the only foreign Kenyan missions where the passports processing system had been installed.