Ruto's crackdown on foreign hawkers will damage Kenya's reputation

Ruto’s crackdown on foreign traders sparks debate over protecting local businesses without straining Kenya’s diplomatic ties. July 23, 2026.[PCS]

President William Ruto is flat-out wrong about foreigners doing small businesses in Kenya. Dr Ruto revived Pan-Africanism after Muammar Gaddafi - preaching an African currency and Africa trading with itself and has earned acclaim at the UN and in Addis Ababa for that. He made multilateralism sound African again. Why does the champion of borderless trade want to hunt foreign hawkers selling duvets and screen protectors on Nairobi's River Road?

In June 2023 in Lusaka, at his first COMESA Heads of State Summit, Ruto went direct: "Our people cannot trade while hostage to foreign currency... We must urgently address this." He demanded a Pan-African payment and settlement system to break dollar hegemony over intra-African commerce and dismantle costly Western correspondent banks.

While in Djibouti in 2023, Ruto hammered this doctrine: Why must Kenya and Djibouti trade be routed through Washington? In Bujumbura, at the 23rd COMESA Summit, he echoed the need to de-dollarise African trade but not confront America. "We are not against the dollar-buy American goods in dollars, and African in local currency. This argument asserts Africa's monetary sovereignty and strategic autonomy.

Progressive leaders bought Ruto’s idea. The PM of Barbados, Mia Mottley, who champions debt justice for the Global South, Lula da Silva of Brazil, who preaches a new internationalism, and others saw in Ruto a credible voice for financial liberation. Ruto's position on an African currency attracted praise from South Africa's EFF leader Julius Malema during a visit to Kenya, but he questioned why Ruto had gone cold on the noble quest.

So, is this the same Ruto whose latest directive carries xenophobic undertones? Such a statement from a leader of his calibre should be the last thing to come out of his mouth. Why abandon that script to hunt down foreigners selling kahawa in insulated flasks to shopkeepers?

To crack down on foreigners doing small business in Kenya is not just ill-conceived. It is anti-globalisation, anti-Pan-African, and anti-Kenya.

Let us be clear. If a trader entered Kenya legally, pays levies, respects the law and avoids felony, he is welcome. A hawker from Rwanda, a mechanic from Nigeria, a herbalist from Zanzibar should call Kenya home, regardless of status. That makes Kenya the friendliest, most attractive to tourists and most accommodating country in Africa.

Chinese traders who exploit zero-rated imports from China, undercutting Kenyan retailers, MUST be dealt with accordingly. KRA must surgically target tax cheats, not blanket raids on poor African hawkers.

We do not want to be like South Africa, where xenophobia has hit the roof, where trucks are burnt because the driver is Malawian, where shops are looted. After all, the owner is Ethiopian. That is not who we are as a country.

Go to London, New York, Addis Ababa, Tehran or Mexico City; you will find Kenyans selling artefacts, hawking our heritage. In Zurich, Minneapolis, Doha, Kenyans hawk. They hustle. They survive. They send money home. The splendour of Pan-Africanism is diversity.

Diaspora remittances bring over $4.5 billion yearly, more than our cash crops combined. That wealth exists because someone tolerated our hustle. We cannot celebrate Kenyans abroad and criminalise foreigners at home.

Timing could not be worse. Ruto heads to New York for UNGA. How will leaders who believed in his resume view him? How does he preach visa-free Africa under the AU while smoking out Burundians selling cultural beads on Moi Avenue?

When Africa must relax visas to make AfCFTA real, do we want to be the island checking papers for mandazi sellers? Kenya cannot operate as an island. Our economy lives on openness. Tourism is our lifeblood. We moved to visa-free entry to be accessible. UNEP and UN-Habitat call Nairobi home, and more key UN agencies are moving to Nairobi. That requires tolerance, not crackdowns.

Frankly, how do you distinguish a Rwandan hawker from a Kenyan hawker when corruption enabled some to acquire Kenyan IDs? They look like us, Kamau, Omondi or Moraa hawking in town. They speak Kiswahili; some intermarried with Kenyans. Their children sit in our schools.

This is the Donald Trump playbook, targeting immigrants for cheap applause. We do not want Ruto compared with Trump on migrants, especially Haitians. We must guard our reputation. Those who lived abroad know how welcoming the world has been.

Kenyans excelled because other countries gave them space to hawk, study, work and grow, Kenya could not provide enough at home. If we are other small traders today, what stops others from othering our own tomorrow?

Ruto should kill this directive. Let our askaris focus on law and order, not nationality. Let KRA tax everyone equally. Let Pan-Africanism mean something on the streets of Nairobi, not just on podiums in New York and Addis Ababa.

Mr Nyaringo is a Kenyan public affairs commentator based in Washington, USA