Kenya has moved to defuse growing anxiety among foreign traders ahead of a government directive to withdraw from petty trade, including hawking, vending and roadside food sales. The directive takes effect today.
The directive was issued by President William Ruto on Wednesday amid pressure from Kenyan traders’ associations, triggering uncertainty among thousands of foreign nationals, particularly East Africans operating small businesses in Kenya.
Earlier, images circulated online show hundreds of Burundians and Congolese gathering at bus terminals, apparently preparing to leave the country through the Uganda border. Later, hundreds of Burundian nationals reportedly gathered at their embassy in Nairobi to protest the directive, while some foreign traders, including Ugandans and other East Africans, reportedly closed their businesses amid fears of enforcement.
The developments have also raised questions about the future of East African Community integration, with critics arguing that the directive could undermine the bloc’s commitments to free movement, establishment and non-discrimination among citizens of Partner States.
On Sunday, however, Kenya’s Cabinet Secretary for Investments, Trade and Industry, Lee Kinyanjui, sought to clarify the government’s position, saying Ruto’s directive was not intended to prevent foreigners from engaging in small businesses, but rather to ensure that those operating in Kenya comply with immigration, work permit and business licensing requirements.
Kinyanjui said Kenya, as an EAC member that has committed itself to the free movement of goods and people, would take the rights of citizens of Partner States into account when implementing immigration and work permit requirements.
“The enforcement and implementation of the directive will comply with the law and will be conducted in an orderly and transparent manner, and also in the spirit of the East African Community,” he said.
He added that Kenya remains open and welcoming to legitimate investors and businesses that operate within the law and contribute to the country’s economic growth, job creation and development. The clarification came amid reports of attacks on some businesses owned by foreigners, although there was no clear indication of a nationwide forceful crackdown by government authorities.
Kinyanjui attributed the government’s concerns partly to a sharp increase in the number of migrants entering Kenya following the country’s implementation of a visa-free entry regime and the January 2025 approval to remove Electronic Travel Authorisation requirements for citizens of most African countries.
He said the government had identified cases in which some visitors allegedly misused visa applications and subsequently engaged in activities inconsistent with the immigration status under which they entered the country.
“There has been deliberate misuse of visa applications by some visitors, leading to persons on investor or tourist status engaging in activities contrary to the provisions of the grant,” he said, adding that owing to the high number of foreigners involved in the retail and local trade sectors, there is a need to align their activities and ensure compliance with work permit provisions.
The government’s position was reinforced by Foreign Affairs Principal Secretary Korir Sing’oei, who said Ruto’s remarks had been taken out of context. Sing’oei said Kenya remained open to both small and large-scale businesses operated by foreign nationals, provided they were properly documented and had the required approvals.
“We assure that small or large traders and employees of all nationalities, with requisite documentation, like work permits and licences, are legally protected to operate in Kenya,” he said. He added that East Africans and Africans generally were free to live and work in Kenya provided they complied with the country’s laws.
For East Africans seeking to operate small businesses in Kenya, the government requires them to regularise their stay under the current immigration framework by applying for a Class R permit through the Kenya Electronic Foreign Nationals Services (eFNS) portal on the eCitizen platform, under the Citizenship and Immigration Amendment Regulations, 2024.
Although the permit application and visa are free, applicants are required to pay 5,000 Kenyan shillings, about 146,000 Shillings, for annual alien registration and issuance of a Foreign National Identity Card. The clarification has done little to erase the wider legal questions surrounding the directive.
Ugandan lawyer Eyobu Mordecai says EAC Partner States have domestic laws governing who can participate in certain categories of trade, but warns that enforcement must be handled carefully because national restrictions can collide with regional integration commitments.
He points to Uganda’s Trade (Licensing) Act, particularly Section 5, which restricts non-citizens from engaging in certain trades, and Tanzania’s 2025 Government Notice No. 487A, which expressly prohibits foreigners from specified small businesses.
“But here is the real EAC question: if Partner States can reserve parts of domestic commerce for citizens, what happens to the Common Market’s guarantees of free movement, establishment and non-discrimination among EAC nationals?” he asks.
Mordecai notes that Burundi and Rwanda have relatively open investment laws, underscoring the different approaches adopted by EAC countries in regulating foreign participation in their economies.
“So the issue is not whether a state may regulate commerce; it plainly may. The legal question is how far that power goes when it conflicts with regional integration obligations,” he says. The debate in Kenya has nevertheless focused disproportionately on Burundian traders, whose growing numbers and visibility in street-level commerce have made them particularly prominent in the controversy.
Alexis Ntinanirwa, head of the Burundi community in Kenya, warns that the consequences could extend beyond relations between Kenya and Burundi and become a broader regional issue.
“This issue is not only going to cause problems for Burundians working in Kenya, but it is also going to cause problems in the region because there are also Kenyans doing these small jobs in our countries in Burundi, Tanzania and Uganda,” he says.
Uganda has meanwhile been watching the situation closely. On Friday, Minister for Trade, Industry and Cooperatives Sanjay Tanna met Ugandan traders at the Ugandan High Commission in Nairobi and pledged to engage his Kenyan counterpart over the concerns.
Tanna nevertheless urged Ugandan traders to comply with Kenyan laws to ensure that their businesses continue operating without disruption. By Monday afternoon, Uganda’s Trade Ministry had yet to indicate what further action it intended to take.
What began as a Kenyan push to protect small businesses for citizens has therefore evolved into a much larger debate: how far can individual EAC states go in protecting domestic commerce without undermining the regional bloc’s promise of integration?-URN. Give us feedback on this story through our email: kamwokyatimes@gmail.com
