Africa
Somalia Adopts and To Start Printing EAC e-Passport
Somalia has received official authorisation to adopt and print the East African Community (EAC) e-Passport, marking a practical step in its integration into the regional bloc, Somalia’s ambassador to Tanzania and permanent representative to the EAC, Ilyaas Ali Hassan, said.
The envoy said in Dar es Salaam on Tuesday, February 17, 2026 that he formally handed over the decision to Somalia’s Minister of Internal Security, Gen Abdullahi Sheikh Ismail “Fartaag,” and the Director-General of Immigration and Citizenship, Mustafa Sheikh Ahmed Dhuxulow, during an engagement in Dar es Salaam.
“I had the honour to hand over the official decision authorising Somalia to adopt and print the EAC passport to the Minister of Internal Security and Director-General of Immigration and Citizenship,” the ambassador said.
The EAC e-Passport is designed to harmonise travel documents across member states while strengthening document security and verification at border points. According to the bloc, the passport contains an embedded electronic chip with biometric identifiers, aimed at reducing fraud, tampering and identity manipulation.
Somalia’s move comes amid growing immigration cooperation with Tanzania. On February 16, the two countries signed a migration cooperation memorandum of understanding, which regional reports say provides visa exemptions for diplomatic passport holders, faster processing timelines for ordinary visas, and structured collaboration between immigration authorities.
Somalia is the EAC’s newest partner state. The bloc admitted Somalia at the Summit of Heads of State on November 24, 2023, and the country became a full member on March 4, 2024, after depositing its instrument of ratification with the EAC secretary-general at the headquarters in Arusha.
The regional e-Passport was launched on March 2, 2016, at the 17th Ordinary Summit of the EAC. It is issued in three categories—diplomatic, service and ordinary—reflecting different classes of official travel.
Rollout among member states has been phased. Kenya began issuing the passport in September 2017, followed by Tanzania in January 2018, Burundi in May 2018, Uganda in December 2018, and Rwanda in July 2019. South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo are still implementing the system, according to the bloc.
Colour coding
EAC documentation says the passport features standardised “East African Community” branding and partner-state identification, with colour coding by category: red for diplomatic, green for service, and sky blue for ordinary—reflecting the colours of the EAC flag and enabling uniform recognition.
For Somalia, authorisation to adopt and print the EAC format is expected to align with broader reforms to its identity and travel-document systems. Somali media reports in late 2025 cited immigration officials saying the country plans to introduce a new passport in 2026 as part of a wider modernisation drive.
The EAC frames harmonised travel documents as central to its integration agenda, aimed at facilitating lawful cross-border movement for work, trade, study and family travel.
According to the bloc, the East African Community represents a combined market of about 331.1 million people with a gross domestic product of roughly $312.9 billion, underscoring the scale of mobility that common standards are intended to support.
Kenya Insights allows guest blogging, if you want to be published on Kenya’s most authoritative and accurate blog, have an expose, news TIPS, story angles, human interest stories, drop us an email on [email protected] or via Telegram
KETRACO CEO Advert Marred By Controversies As Fears Grow That Kipkemoi Kibias Is A Predetermined Candidate
I Will Bribe Every Judge in Town- MP Jack Wamboka
KNH ON THE BRINK: How Corruption, Revenue Plunder and State Neglect Are Destroying Kenya’s Flagship Hospital
Receivers In TransCentury Sh6B KRA Tax Arrears Are Biased And Must Be Removed, COFEK Claims
The Man Behind the Badge: How Prof. Erastus Kanga Turned Kenya’s Premier Wildlife Agency into a Theatre of Corruption, Fear and Impunity
City Lawyer Conrad Maloba Arrested Over Fake Ambulance Fraud
How Little Known KwikBet Leveraged Stolen Kenyans Data To Build Its Empire
THE FIXER IN THE FILE ROOM: How Parliamentary Health Committee Clerk Adan Gindicha Cleared Mediheal Hospital of Organ Harvesting Claims Despite Mounting Evidence
Nairobi Freezes Binance Accounts in Sweeping Anti-Fraud Crackdown as Global Scandal Record Haunts World’s Largest Crypto Exchange
EXCLUSIVE: Odibets Bought Stolen Data From Millions Of Kenyans
Forged Legacy: How Kaplan and Stratton’s Peter Gachuhi Is Accused of Faking a Top AG’s Will as State Claims Damning Evidence
Inside Details Of Sh78 Billion Fraud in KPC’s Mombasa-Nairobi Line 5 Pipeline Project That Has Continued To Bleed The Country
Sold And Abandoned: How Diageo and Asahi Are Locking Kenya’s EABL Minority Shareholders Out Of East Africa’s Biggest Corporate Heist
Poison at the Pump: How Kenya’s Fuel Marking System May Be Exposing Millions to Cancer-Causing Chemicals
THE HANDSHAKE THAT BECAME A NOOSE: How Tuju’s Alleged Intimate Access to EADB’s Yeda Apopo Produced a Sh294 Million Deal With No Written Contract, and Why That Trust Destroyed an Empire
The Lawyer at the Centre of Kenya’s State Machine: Eric Gumbo, the AG’s Bypassed Office, and the Half-Billion-Shilling Question
How Firm Linked To Mombasa Tycoon Jaffer Was Allowed To Import Fuel At Bloated Price And Set To Make Billions In Profits From Iranian War Crisis In Kenya
THE ZAKHEM-ECOBANK MACHINE: How Kenya’s Courts Were Weaponised to Drain a State Corporation of Over KES 78 Billion
The Teflon Company: How Gulf Energy’s Insiders Built Billions on Kenya’s Fuel, and Walked Away Clean
The Debt They Would Not Pay: How Standard Group Ducked Sh50 Million In Regulatory Fee For Years, Then Called It A Witch-Hunt
-
Business1 week agoKenyan Motorists Stare At Possible Engine Damage And Heavy Losses As Report Confirms Substandard Fuel In Circulation
-
Business1 week agoTHE FUEL CABAL: How Mohamed Jaffer, a KPC Insider, and a Ministry Official Are Alleged to Have Manufactured Kenya’s Worst Petroleum Crisis in Three Years, While Kenyans Burned
-
Business1 week agoGetting Away With It: How Kenya’s Most Politically Connected Fuel Company Gulf Energy Is Pocketing Billions While Rival Firms Face Public Wrath
-
Business2 weeks agoHow Safaricom Could Sell You Out To KRA
-
News2 weeks agoThe Kewota Racket: How Kenya’s Female Teachers Are Being Bled Dry
-
Business1 week agoSugar Empire in the Dock: How Kibos’s Mombasa Refinery Landed 1,481 Phantom Tonnes at the Port — and Why Nine Government Agencies Are Now Watching Its Every Move
-
Business1 week agoTotalEnergies Moves to Sue TikToker for Sh10 Million Over Contaminated Fuel Claim as Kenya’s Petroleum Sector Burns
-
Investigations3 days agoEXCLUSIVE: Odibets Bought Stolen Data From Millions Of Kenyans