The papers are crumpled, the faces are tired and the uncertainty is palpable.
Outside the Burundian Embassy along Denis Pritt Road in Nairobi, families huddle in small groups, clutching documents as if they were lifelines.
Some have spent the night on the pavement and on the roadside, too afraid to return to the places they have called home for years and too broke to begin the journey back to Burundi.
Among them is an exhausted father, his eyes darting between the embassy gates and the papers folded tightly in his hands. His hopes, for now, appear to hang on those few sheets of paper — proof of identity, travel documents and whatever else might allow his family to leave Kenya.
“I don’t know what we will do,” he told The Standard on Tuesday 8, the second day foreign nationals flocked to the Embassy to process documents days after President William Ruto’s directive ordering undocumented foreign nationals engaged in small businesses to leave Kenya.
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For families caught in the crossfire, the uncertainty has become painfully personal. And for school-going children, the disruption has gone beyond displacement:
It means being pulled out of familiar classrooms and pushed into an education system, language and curriculum they barely understand.
Ndayisaba Severe, a Burundian father of two, is among those stranded outside the embassy on Tuesday, a day after the directive began being enforced.
His children are in Grade Five. They started their education in Burundi before joining schools in Kenya, where the languages of instruction are English and Kiswahili.
Now, he fears they will be forced to start over. “They will go backwards,” he said.
The father says the difference in languages alone could make the transition difficult. In Burundi, he explains, children study mainly in French, while in Kenya they have been learning in English and Kiswahili.
“From there to here, they have to start again,” he says.
Another parent, who arrived in Kenya alone in 2024 before bringing his wife and child, faces a similar dilemma.
His child joined school in Kenya in PP2 and is now in Grade One. A return to Burundi, he shared, would force the child into an unfamiliar education environment.
“It will take her backwards. It is like starting again,” he stated, adding that the language barrier is particularly worrying.
“Here they study English and Kiswahili. There, it is French. It will be very difficult for them to integrate," he said
“We have struggled. We don’t even have fare. We have nowhere to sleep."
The timing of Ruto's directive is particularly sensitive, coming just weeks before the Kenya National Examination Council administers the 2026 national assessments and examinations.
Learners across the country are in the final stretch of the 2026 academic year, with candidates preparing for the Kenya Primary School Education Assessment (KPSEA), Kenya Junior School Education Assessment (KJSEA) and Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE).
National Parents Association chairman Silas Obuhatsa said families facing the prospect of losing their sources of income could struggle to meet basic education costs.
“A parent whose income has depended on a kiosk, shop, hawking business or small retail outlet may suddenly have to choose between relocating, closing the business, seeking alternative employment or spending money to regularise their status,” Obuhatsa said.
The Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC) has registered about 3.6 million candidates for this year’s national assessments and KCSE, the largest candidature in the council’s history.
He said the disruption could come at a particularly difficult time for candidates who require a stable environment as they prepare for examinations.
“School fees, transport, meals, uniforms, learning materials and examination-related expenses could become difficult to meet. For boarding-school learners, the loss of household income could lead to delayed fee payments or, in extreme cases, withdrawal from school,” he added.
The concern is compounded by the fact that some affected families have children who have lived and studied in Kenya for years.
Fanuel Mugisha, a parent in Mowlem, said uncertainty surrounding the future of affected families could affect children's concentration.
“Some children are going to school while wondering whether their parents will still be there when they return home. That kind of uncertainty can affect concentration, especially for a candidate preparing for an examination,” he said.
“For learners whose parents are forced to relocate, the disruption could be even more severe,” he said.
“A candidate who leaves Kenya weeks or months before a national examination could lose valuable revision time and face difficulties adjusting to another country's curriculum, school calendar and examination arrangements.”
Kenya Secondary School Heads Association chairman Willie Kuria warned that any disruption involving candidates could complicate preparations for national examinations.
“A learner who is forced to relocate to another country in the final weeks before KCSE, KJSEA or KPSEA could lose valuable revision time and face difficulties adjusting to a different education system, curriculum, language or examination arrangements,” Kuria said.
Private schools with sizable populations of foreign learners could face withdrawals if families decide to leave Kenya or can no longer afford school fees. Public schools in areas with significant migrant communities could also experience changes in enrolment.
A director of a private school in Nairobi said institutions needed clear Government guidance to deal with the situation.
“As schools, we need clear guidance on how to support learners whose parents are affected, particularly candidates already registered for national examinations,” the director said.
Kenyan children whose parents depend on businesses that trade with foreign nationals could also suffer if supply chains are interrupted, businesses close or household incomes fall.
James Mwaniki, a parent, said the Government needed to consider the wider social and economic consequences of the directive.
“In some communities, foreign families have lived in Kenya for years, with their children attending local schools and forming friendships with Kenyan children,” he said.
The directive followed growing complaints from Kenyan traders who argue that foreign nationals have increasingly entered small-scale businesses, including hawking, kiosks and retail, areas traditionally dominated by local entrepreneurs.
President Ruto has maintained that Kenya remains open to foreign investment but said foreigners should bring productive capital, technology and employment opportunities rather than compete with Kenyans in low-capital businesses.
The Government has since moved to soften the initial enforcement approach by introducing a 90-day window for affected foreign nationals to regularise their immigration status, work permits, business registration and licences.
“At the conclusion of the 90-day regularisation period, immigration, work permit, registration and licensing requirements will be enforced firmly and strictly in accordance with the law and due process,” the Government said.
The Government has stressed that the directive is not a blanket ban on foreigners and that those legally resident, employed, investing or conducting business in Kenya will be protected.
Kuria noted that with national examinations approaching, institutions are expected to complete syllabuses, conduct revision, administer internal assessments and ensure candidates are psychologically prepared.
“Any sudden movement of learners could therefore interfere with these preparations. Schools may also have to deal with unpaid fees, requests for fee extensions, withdrawals and transfers, while teachers could be forced to provide additional support to learners experiencing anxiety over their families' circumstances,” he said. By Tuesday afternoon, the majority of the families had not yet been attended to, despite the growing crowd outside the embassy.
Some had arrived with little more than identification papers and passport photographs, uncertain about what document would eventually be issued to them.
“I don’t know what we will do with it. I don’t know how it will help us,” Severe said.
“Whatever the President has decided, there is nothing I can do,” he said, resigning, pleading for more time from the State to allow them to prepare to go back home.
“Give us one or two months,” he appealed. “Let us prepare, then we can return.”