The Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) has connected 20 more Police Clearance Certificate application centres to its new biometric system as it moves to reduce the time Kenyans take to get Certificates of Good Conduct.
The latest rollout brings the number of connected centres across the country to 26, with the new facilities mainly covering Central Kenya and neighbouring areas.
The centres include Kajiado Central, Kajiado West-Kisamis, Machakos, Thika, Kamwangi, Murang’a, Nyeri, Nyandarua-Ol Kalou, Nanyuki, Laikipia East-Makutano and Samburu-Maralal.
Others are Kerugoya, Mwea, Embu, Chuka, Marimanti, Maara, Kathwana, Meru and Isiolo.
The DCI said the latest rollout marks the completion of the second phase of the nationwide deployment of the Multi-Biometric Identification System (MBIS).
The system uses ABIS Version 5 to manage criminal records and Police Clearance Certificate services using biometric data.
The 20 centres join six facilities in Nairobi that were connected earlier, leaving 37 of the 63 PCC application centres yet to be integrated.
The DCI plans to eventually connect all operational Huduma Centres so that applicants can access the services closer to where they live.
The next phase will cover the remaining regions, with DCI teams preparing to connect more centres.
The expansion follows the launch of the biometric system in July, when DCI Director General Mohamed Amin said it could reduce the processing time for a Police Clearance Certificate from 14 days to about one day under optimal conditions.
The MBIS brings together fingerprint, palmprint and facial recognition data in one system.
Apart from processing Certificates of Good Conduct, the DCI said the system will help improve suspect identification, fingerprint analysis and other forensic work.
