President William Ruto’s eTA: Visa by another name?

When President Ruto announced that “it shall no longer be necessary for any person from any corner of the globe to carry the burden of applying for a visa to come to Kenya”, the tourism and business sectors applauded the news.

But the celebration was muted after a new $30 Electronic Travel Authorisation (eTA) turned to be the “free visa”. Kenya appears to have moved from one entry payment platform to another; made a promise and later reneged.

Ever since he became president, Ruto has advocated for the populist visa-free travel within Africa in his bid to frame himself as a pan-African, and as a strategy to reduce low levels of control within Kenyan entry ports.

But that seems not to work in practice and now he faces critics as he tries to implement the same. While his predecessor, Uhuru Kenyatta, had in 2018 signed the African Union Protocol on the Free Movement of Persons, Right of Residence and Right of Establishment, Kenya is among the various countries that have not yet deposited the ratification documents with the AU.

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So far, only Rwanda, Mali, Niger, and Sao Tome & Principe have completed the process.

Pundits say Kenya’s new eTA regime complicates travelling for those seeking multiple entries. “I am afraid eTA is not Visa-free, and looking at the myriad of questions that a potential visitor has to answer, (eTA) is making it even more difficult,” said former Kenya Tourism Federation chairman Mohammed Hersi on his X handle.

Though President Ruto’s pronouncement was supposed to be in line with a decision adopted by AU Heads of State in 2012 to establish a continental free trade area, the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), which was to allow businesspeople and investments to move freely across borders, the eTA is not competing with the flexible regime adopted by either Rwanda or Morocco.

“It has made it harder to travel to Kenya,” Sean Mendis, an industry expert, told BBC.

Kenya is not comparable with the flexibility adopted by Paul Kagame’s Rwanda, which has embraced a liberal visa regime for years. In 2016, Kagame allowed the citizens of nearly 90 per cent of African countries to obtain a visa on arrival, while the other 10 per cent of the citizens could enter visa-free. By 2018, Rwanda increased the number of African states whose citizens were allowed a visa-free entry. In March 2020, Rwanda announced it would waive visa-on-arrival fees for all African Union member states visiting for 30 days or less.

In 2023, Rwanda liberalised further by extending visa-free access to the citizens of all African Union member states.

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For that, Rwanda is now ranked number one in Africa in terms of free mobility. Critics say that Kenya only renamed the visa to eTA and increased the number of nationalities who will now pay the $30 fee. Previously, 51 nationalities – including South Africans, Malawians, and Ghanaians - were exempted from paying for their visa entries. Today, only EAC members are allowed free entry.

Travelers say the new eTA is only for a specific itinerary and cannot be changed with flight cancellation. “Each eTA is a single entry, and you cannot apply for the next eTA until you exit the country, meaning that you cannot travel to Kenya more than often than once every 72 hours. This system is not something to be commended.

It is basically a cash grab rather than a means of opening borders. The old visa regime was far better than this, especially for those who qualified for actual visa-free entry…or for frequent travelers who could get multiple entry visas but now have to reapply every single time,” argues Sean Mendis, a travel industry expert.

The only shift is that entry to Kenya is $20 cheaper for those who used to pay but much more complex for regular travelers since it has no option for multiple entries. While African nations have been pushing for open borders, the proposed African Union passport, launched in 2016, has yet to gain traction.

More so, Africa has struggled to dismantle barriers to the movement of people across its borders with no success. Since 2016, the five African nations that showed a significant shift to a liberal visa policy were Ethiopia, Benin, Nigeria, The Gambia, and Rwanda.

Kenya was supposed to be the sixth country in Africa to offer visa-free entry to citizens from the rest of the continent, but the ETA application fee has complicated that. Last year, Kenya was ranked 25th among African nations for visa openness, and it will be interesting to see how it will rate now.

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“The introduction of eTA is premised on the need to have a fair, faster, and reliable system that also addresses Kenya’s security and other strategic interests,” Julius Bitok, the Principal Secretary of the Ministry of Interior, said in a statement.

On paper, Kenya hopes to increase the number of tourists by making the entry easier. But with the tourism industry lamenting that the eTA is a complex platform, there is fear that it could lose the numbers to tedious paperwork.

Kenya’s tourism sector performance report for 2022 indicates that international tourist arrivals were 1,483,752, which represents a 70.45% increase as compared to 2021 arrivals of 870,465. The inbound receipts grew up to Sh268.09 billion compared to Sh146.51 billion in 2021.

These are the numbers to watch in the new regime. Those within the industry expressed their disappointment: “As at now many countries that enjoyed Visa free are now being forced to apply for eTA since they fall outside the EAC,” lamented Mohammed Hersi, a past chairman of Kenya Tourism Federation. It has been reported that Seychelles has used the visa-free policy to attract African tourists and businesses.

Before the system came into effect, travellers from 51 countries didn’t require visas, so they paid nothing.

Visitors from 155 countries were subjected to a visa application process that cost $50. Kenya had earlier waived visa requirements for citizens from Indonesia, Senegal, and Congo, anchored on bilateral agreements to enhance the movement of tourists, investors, and skilled personnel.

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“The entry requirements and applicable payments for all foreign nationals, except for East African Community citizens, will now be the same irrespective of the country of origin. The visa fee was $50 while the ETA fee for all is $30, thereby ensuring fairness and equity,” argues the interior ministry.

While the visa regime is supposed to sieve unwanted people who could threaten a nation’s security and identity from entering, some pundits argued that Kenya was about to abandon its instrument of mobility restriction and control.

The introduction of eTA, just like the visa, managed cross-border mobility and prevented foreigners from starting their journey without prior permission.

Critics of the new eTA system argue that it is a visa by another name since they have to pay $30 to apply, even for those who previously were entitled to free visas.

The Report on the State of Integration, prepared for COMESA’s 22nd Summit of Heads of State in June 2023, noted that “restrictions on movement of persons across the region hinders intra-regional trade in goods and services”. Whether Kenya’s new ETA opens the borders remains to be seen. Meanwhile, Kenya promised a free visa that never was. 

[email protected]                 @johnkamau1