Why Kenya’s visa-free plan for Africans is fueling tension

Speaking at a climate conference in Congo Brazzaville on Oct. 28, Ruto stated that visa restrictions were a major hindrance to intra-African trade and needed to be done away with.

“When people cannot travel, businesspeople cannot travel, entrepreneurs cannot travel, we all become net losers,” he said.

Costly and time-consuming visa processes are among the biggest barriers for intra-African trade and travel. For 47% of intra-African travel, African citizens need a visa before traveling, according to the 2022 Visa Openness Index by the Africa Development Bank (AfDB).

While things are improving it is still expected to be easier for a North American or European passport holder to travel between African countries than for an African passport holder.

Many business owners in Kenya are open to hiring migrant workers as it is widely thought they can generally pay them less than their Kenyan counterparts. However, this also creates opportunities for migrants to be exploited.

Recruitment agencies in Kenya in particular have become notorious for exploiting and, in some cases, scamming, desperate jobseekers. Migrant workers in Kenya are likely to face these challenges especially with employers who see an opportunity to cut their costs.

“To some extent they [employers] are capitalizing on desperation; because they see these workers really want to make money here to support their people back home, they don’t have options like Kenyans who can easily quit if frustrated,” said Joyce Chemutai, who runs a recruitment agency for domestic workers in Nairobi. She told Semafor Africa that many prospective employers specifically request for workers from Uganda, thanks to a widespread belief that they are dedicated to their jobs and cheaper to hire than their Kenyan counterparts.

An influx of migrant workers could also fuel existing tensions with local workers, many of whom are grappling with frustration over high unemployment and the cost of living.

Enabling the creation of adequate job opportunities should be a top priority for Ruto’s administration if it is to avoid social tensions and conflict similar to the situation in South Africa, where the presence of migrant workers from other African countries has been a hot-button political issue for well over a decade. Not only are many locals vocal about their opposition to the presence of foreigners but there have also been violent xenophobic protests and attacks on property owned by African migrants.

It’s notable that only three countries on the continent currently offer visa-free access for all Africans — Benin, Seychelles and the Gambia, all very small economies perhaps unlikely to face a huge influx of migrants looking for work. But it also could be the start of a broader positive trend. Days after Ruto’s announcement, Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame on Nov. 2, also announced that the country would offer visa-free access to all Africans.

Bolaji Sofoluwe, managing director of ETK Group, a company which helps businesses expand across Africa, told Semafor Africa that Kenya’s economy would benefit in the long term from having migrant workers. But she said the country needed to be deliberate about harnessing skills, intellectual property and capital for the benefits of intra-African trade, including job creation, to trickle down to regular Kenyans. “Movement of people needs to be accompanied by movement of goods and services,” she said. “Once you have better industrialization, commercial capital and entities within these markets, that would bolster the availability of jobs.”