The good and bad side of Ruto's visa free entry for all into Kenya

 President William Ruto during Jamhuri Day celebrations at Uhuru Gardens, Nairobi, on December 12, 2023. [Stafford Ondego, Standard]

President William Ruto’s decision to make Kenya a visa-free country for all visitors is a double-edged sword.

The president hopes the economy will be spurred by investors thronging the country, but critics feel the move will open Kenya's borders to all and sundry, some with bad intentions.

Macharia Munene, an International Relations scholar, thinks the president has good intentions and wants to ultimately sell himself to the world as a global leader.

“The worry is that there is nothing reciprocal. He is allowing visa free entry when Western countries are closing down their borders because he wants to sell himself to the world as a global leader,” says Prof Munene.

The president has insisted on Kenya embracing globalisation and opening its borders to spur socio-economic development.

“Our world belongs to those who are not shy to embrace globalisation and we should therefore venture abroad fearlessly and warmly welcome our visitors from near and far,” said Ruto.

Speaking at the Youth Connekt Africa Summit on December 9, 2023, the president said Kenya is the cradle of mankind and therefore the first home of all humanity.

“We joyfully embrace our ancestral task of welcoming humanity home. Kenya is the home of humanity, a scientific fact that fills us with pride and underscores our rich heritage,” he said.

Ruto said visa requirements were introduced by European nations which have since abandoned them.

The president also supported the establishment of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) to create a borderless market for businesses across the continent.

Munene however argues that the president may not have been advised well on the visa issuance issue, because it is not wise to open up the country to the world's eight billion people.

First, the country is not prepared for such an influx should it happen, because it is facing security challenges and also lacks basic facilities like water, health facilities, sewerage systems and adequate infrastructure among others.

“How do you flood the country with millions of people with an economy that is going down the drain? What will those people be coming to do?” he posed, adding that it will only make the situation worse.

Then there’s the reasoning that the president’s offer may not get any takers because this is not the first time he is making the visa free call.

He has made the announcement before that people on the continent should not be restrained by visa requirements to spur trade.

Unfortunately, nothing much was realised from the kind gesture, perhaps prompting him to extend the call to all visitors.

But there is also hope that investors might seize the opportunity and come and invest in the country.

Other emerging questions include how neighbouring countries will react because in theory residents of the East African Community (EAC) are supposed to move freely in the region using the regional passport or the national identity card.

“They may be uncomfortable because of security issues. Some people who are not good can come and stay because they have been told, come without questions being asked.

Others who have followed the president’s speeches keenly, think it is just one of those policy statements that he likes to make that in hindsight later turn out not to have been thought through well.

They include his comments on the Sudan conflict, the coup in Niger, the diplomatic goof on Western Sahara and most recently the Israeli-Palestine war where things are becoming a haywire for the United Nations.

“It is a habit he has of making statements that in hindsight appear as if he is not very well advised but if he is, then he does not listen to advise and this visa issue could be one of them,” added Munene.

The president has over the past few months engaged in an overdrive of signing bilateral agreements during foreign travels, promising Kenyans that he is looking for job opportunities for millions of skilled young people.

Speaking during the Diapora Investment Conference 2023 at KICC, the president promised that the country is determined to increase remittances from the diaspora from the current Sh4 billion to Sh10 billion.

“We have agreed with Israel to employ our youth at the end of this month and January next year. Similar agreements have been made with Germany, United States and Saudi Arabia because we want to make sure our youth have job security,” said Ruto.

That will mean many young getting visa’s to travel abroad for jobs, while those who are jobless in other countries, especially in Africa flock to Kenya visa free to fight for the few jobs that are available with local youth.

Kenya cannot produce over a million of jobs every month because that is the number that can accommodate the kind of population that is coming into the job market annually.

According to World Bank data, the challenge is that Africa will need 230 million digital jobs to accommodate the youth by 2030.

Yesterday, Siasa Place Executive Director Nerima Wako said the president has a big challenge on his hands because millions of youth are graduating from colleges every year.

This month, another large group of graduates will join the job markets among them graduands from the University of Nairobi and Kenyatta University who are graduating today.

The president is determined to get jobs in the diaspora, because a country like Germany needs 400,000 workers annually, the average age of citizens in the world’s third largest economy after the US and China being 41 years.

Nerima however thinks it will be more viable and secure for Kenyans to work in European countries without moving people physically.

“I know that the public is a little bit nervous about the agreements he is entering into but the president definitely has to do that because options are limited,” said Nerima.

She is wary of the free entry regime because politicians in Europe are now driving their campaign policies on the anti-immigration agenda with many of those elected now urging that their borders be closed to immigrants from third world countries.

Another fear is that Kenyan youth traveling to those countries may not be protected from abuse or that they may be overworked and underpaid, with other factors like brain drain also threatening the country.

“There needs to be regulatory framework to reduce the abuse that has already happened in some countries and also protect them from exploitation of overworking and underpayment,” added Nerima.

Meanwhile, even as Kenya looks at inviting, the world, neighbouring Tanzania has not ratified the issuance of the East African Single Tourist Visa (STV) aimed at making the region a single tourist destination.

In October, Tanzania opposed STV at the Tourism and Wildlife Management Sectoral Council in Arusha, arguing that the East African Community (EAC) should first to address security and financial implications of the scheme.

Three EAC countries, Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda, are already implementing the plan and have disagreed with Tanzania, while Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan are in the process of joining the initiative.

EAC resolved to seek consensus on STV before implementation next year at the Arusha meeting.