Faces of impunity: PS Bitok, Cheluget linked to RSF passport saga

Senior government officials under whose watch members of a Sudanese militia and suspected Somali terrorists acquired Kenyan passports and identification cards are walking with their heads high, as officials at the Immigration department conduct a covert operation to cover their tracks.

The Standard has established that the Immigration Department has embarked on an exercise to clean its tracks and has restricted access to the Kenyan E-passport portal, which is only accessible to a select number of immigration staff.

In the process, several passports that were fraudulently issued have been deleted from the system in the past week as efforts to conceal the digital footprints of the vice intensify.

However, despite the spirited attempts to conceal crimes and a betrayal of the country’s sovereignty, the footprints of the leaders are glaring.

While all senior government officials, as well as the National Assembly and Senate, have opted for silence in the wake of the damning revelations, details The Standard accessed reveal the timelines and the approval details for the documents, pinning senior government officials.

According to insiders, the brazen issuance of Kenyan passports and IDs was overseen by several officials who gave the process a greenlight but it was more prominent during the reign of former Immigration Principal Secretary Julius Bitok and the tenure of Director General of Immigration Services Evelyne Cheluget.

An analysis of documents in our possession indicates that while some of the documents were issued in 2023, the process was more prominent between 2024 and 2025. Recommendation details from tracking results indicate that the documents were recommended through the authority of the PS.

According to insiders working at the Immigration department, the leadership was aware of the rot in the system, with some opting to turn a blind eye as a result of the chain of command.

For instance, a tracking result for Algoney Hamdan Musa, the chief procurement officer of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), was approved on August 27, 2024. He had applied for a 34 paged-passport at the time. He would later receive his passport on February 14, 2025, the same day 13 other members of the RSF also received their documents.

Similarly, Zahra Hamdan, a relative of Dagalao, had hers approved three weeks later on September 19, 2024, but miraculously had her passport processed the same day.

The trail of the applications indicates that a majority of the approvals were done between August 2024 and January 2025, while Bitok was at the helm.

Current Immigration PS Belio Kipsang is also walking a tight rope as he seeks to clean up a mess that has tainted the country’s standing for providing sanctioned individuals with the means to travel across the world undetected.

Although the clearance of the applications for most of the RSF operatives was done before he took office last year, the rot is still thriving under his watch as Somali nationals bag the Kenyan ID for a dime.

Save for one South Sudanese national, Stephen Royilang, who received his passport on March 27, 2025, most of the passports were issued in the previous months, as Somali nationals also smiled their way out of the immigration centres with the Kenyan ID during the same period.

In February last year, the Immigration department approved at least ten other applications for Sudanese nationals linked to RSF. One of the applicants, Abazar Ahmed, got approval on February 17, 2025.

Interestingly, despite the time lapse in the duration of the applications, digital footprints indicate that the junior officials tasked with implementing the exercise were the same for both the approving and token officer.

According to an insider, a lean team instructed by security officials was tasked with implementing the covert operation, overseen by senior government officials.

The Standard has established that senior officials in the department have lost their rights to access the system as government officials move to block the leaks of the horrors of corruption that have exposed the country’s vital documents to warlords.

The scheme, aided by brokers with deep ties to the immigration and security systems, helped more than 60 Somali nationals obtain Kenyan IDs, while scores received passports.

Among them were individuals flagged for links to terrorism, further raising questions about the dedication of security agencies to protect the country.

According to documents seen by The Standard, some IDs were issued at the City Square Huduma Centre, while others were issued in Garissa (Kotulo, Tarbaj, Eldas, and Garissa Central), Mandera, Kisauni, Lunga Lunga, and Eastleigh.

Other centres allegedly involved in processing fraudulent IDs and passports included Budalang’i, Makadara, and Mavoko.