Kenya Immigration Department Issues Tougher Guidelines for Foreigners Seeking Work Documents

The Department of Immigration Services is set to introduce new rules and guidelines for foreigners wishing to work in Kenya.

Under the new changes, foreign citizens looking to work in Kenya will be required to make applications prior to traveling to the country and will only be granted entry if their application is successful.

The Department is also set to make a digital registry where details of foreigners working in the country will be stored, even as it continues to crackdown on those without valid documents.

In a statement on Monday, Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang'i said the government is pursuing 3,434 foreigners suspected to be working in the country illegally.

This follows the end of the two-month verification exercise where all expatriates were required to authenticate their work documents. Matiang'i said a total of 26,829 foreigners had verified their work permits by the end of the exercise on July 22nd.

“These 2,760 work permits were not verified due to various reasons such as unavailability of permit holders because of illness or travel,” Matiang'i said in a statement on Monday.

The CS said some brokers linked to a syndicate extorting unsuspecting foreign nationals seeking the documents were nabbed during the exercise.

“We will continue to hunt down for more brokers because the Department of Immigration Services does not need such people to facilitate the processing of papers,” Matiangi said.

He said illegal workers will be deported back to their countries even as the ministry seeks to amend the law to compel deportees to meet their travel costs.

“The proposed amendments would save us from spending sometimes up to about Sh 500 million annually to deport people,” Matiangi noted.