US Embassy Nairobi: The US Embassy in Nairobi has announced that the US government will no longer give visas to Kenyans without electronic passports.
The move effectively made the US the first major country to start demanding for e-passports from travelers.
“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.
This move now means that those with valid visas but in old passports will not be allowed into the US unless they carry with them e-passports. Currently, over 400,000 Kenyans have obtained e-passports.
The government has been struggling to meet the high demand for the e-passports. It has already announced that there might be passport application centres in London in the UK, Paris in France, Washington, DC in US, Pretoria in South Africa, Dubai and Berlin. However, these centres are yet to be established.
The e-passports come with an electronic chip are part of a global effort aimed at curbing forgery of passports.
