Telling the right story: a new Kenyan ePassport

Kenya couldn’t be more clear about its goals: “The Kenya Vision 2030 aims to transform Kenya into a newly industrializing, middle-income country providing a high quality of life to all its citizens by 2030 in a clean and secure environment.”¹ 

A travel document that provides legal identity, and makes the lives of the growing numbers of Kenyans who travel abroad – for education, employment, tourism, health, business, etc. – easier when they leave their homes, can only help this pledge become a reality. 

Further, Kenya is a proud member of the East African Community (EAC) – an intergovernmental partnership of eight member states in the East African region. The best possible travel document goes a long way to unlocking the collective potential of those states, so holders can travel freely between the member countries.²

Kenya is a tech leader in the region, and its ePassport – now in its 3^rd generation – set the standard. When the request emerged to design a new iteration of its 3^rd generation ePassport, the question was, how do you add value to something that is working, and is already full of technological features?

No compromise on security

The baseline security of a 3^rd generation ePassport like Kenya’s is already high. State-of-the-art level 1 features – visually verifiable, in other words – are par for the course. That the existing version already had them was freeing, pointed out Mohammad Mousa, Director Business Development MEA at Veridos. A new path could be taken, once security had been established.

“We took the security by design concept and completely redefined it, adapting it to what Kenya stands for and how Kenya wants to express itself through its citizens,” said Mousa. “Whether they’re from the north, the south, central Kenya; whatever region, whatever tribe; everybody was able to identify some component of the passport’s story as their own.”

The rationale was simple. The identities field is crowded, and it is hard to stand apart on technological features alone. The idea was to stake out a new story, that led the passport holder on a different sort of journey.

To win the Kenyan job, the Veridos team undertook a huge amount of research, which paid off as the project developed. The Kenyan authorities were involved, and stayed invested till completion. Communication made it all work, affirmed Mousa.

Security and design in tandem

It hinged on the way Veridos redefined “security by design”. Its class-leading technology was actually embedded in the story the passport was telling. The emotional journey led the security architecture of the booklet, instead of the other way around.

To illustrate: on the data page, there is an outline in the shape of Kenya itself. Its irregular edges enhance security and aid in identification, while pushing the “Kenyan” narrative of the booklet. Within that shape is a Kenyan shield, placed there using Spectre ID. Two layers with matching embossing structures create a dynamic effect that is visible when the document is tilted.

Just below that is a shield with two spears. It is a high security feature using optically variable ink (OVI) to change color based upon the viewing angle. It is all but impossible to replicate. 

Below that is a moving image of a lion, a beloved symbol of Kenya’s wildlife. It is rendered dynamic through the use of MAGIC ID, an advanced multiple image technology, where preprinted and specifically arranged pixels combine with sophisticated lens structures for continuous moving effects.

These are just four of the many ways in which security and design work together on just the data page, to make the passport emotionally resonant for the holder, while keeping their identity completely secure and verifiable.

This overarching idea is followed throughout the booklet. Different animals, figures, and historic and geographic motifs Kenya’s diverse citizenry will recognize and identify with form the backbone of the narrative, backed up by Veridos’ technological products. A security feature is never just there for its own sake; it plays a role in the story the booklet is telling, the story the Kenyan government wanted to tell. 

Purely in terms of physical documents, Veridos has provided Passports from Bangladesh to Latvia to Costa Rica, driving licenses in Canada and Uganda, and voter IDs in Mexico, among many other projects. With its background and expertise in providing state-of-the-art identity documents across the world, Veridos was ideally placed to partner with the Kenyan government in updating its ePassport to its latest iteration. 

Published: 09/10/2025