Accordingly, the six-partner states - Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, Burundi, Rwanda and South Sudan - have been directed to start issuing of the travelling document by January 31, 2018.
Arusha. New electronic passport for the East African Community (EAC) will be ready in January next year, it was announced yesterday.
Accordingly, the six-partner states - Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, Burundi, Rwanda and South Sudan - have been directed to start issuing of the travelling document by January 31, 2018.
The directive was given at the 35th meeting of the EAC Council of Ministers, which ended its session in Arusha on Tuesday.
A meeting of the regional leaders held at Ngurdoto Mountain Lodge near Arusha in March last year directed the issuing of the new EAC e-passport by January this year.
A programme to phase out the current machine readable EAC and national passport was set for implementation from January 1 to December 31 next year.
Burundi reported during the ministerial meeting in Arusha that it had completed the process of procuring e-passport booklets through a public private partnership (PPP) arrangement.
Sources close to the EAC secretariat said Tanzania would start issuing the EAC e-passport by January 1 next year, while Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda are in the final stages to do the same.
The new EAC travel document will come in red, green and sky blue, the colours of the EAC flag, but with text and national emblems in gold to complete its face.
The colour of the passport will depend on categories. For instance, EAC diplomats will carry a passport, which is red in colour, green is for officials and sky blue is for ordinary people.
It will be valid for 10 years, while the diplomatic passport and service passport will be valid according to a specific term of service of the holder.
The outer front cover will have the words East African Community in gold on top and below the name of the issuing partner states will be pasted.
The first version of the EAC passport was issued about 10 years ago, but has to be phased out due to various reasons, including not being machine-readable.
