Kenya has dropped within the newest rankings of how open it’s to guests from different African international locations, regardless of implementing a “visa-free coverage” earlier this 12 months.
BBC Information experiences that in line with the 2024 Africa Visa Openness Index (AVOI), Kenya fell 17 locations to forty sixth out of 54 nations.
The decline follows the introduction of a brand new system requiring most guests from African international locations to use on-line for journey authorisation, moderately than merely arriving visa-free.
In accordance with experiences, in January 2024, President William Ruto introduced that Kenya would take away visa necessities for all guests from African international locations, a transfer that was extensively praised on the time. Nonetheless, the brand new system, often called the Digital Journey Authorisation (ETA), requires most vacationers to use on-line earlier than departure. This method can take as much as three days to course of, and a few critics have known as it “a visa underneath one other identify.” Residents from the East African Neighborhood (EAC) are exempt from this requirement.
A authorities spokesperson defined earlier this 12 months that the ETA is critical for vetting vacationers, citing world safety threats, together with terrorism. “We want mechanisms to make sure everybody who’s coming to Kenya will not be a threat to the nation,” the spokesperson stated. This follows a number of assaults by al-Shabab militants from Somalia.
Whereas the coverage was designed to ease journey, it has confronted vital criticism. BBC experiences {that a} hotelier and former chairman of the Kenya Tourism Federation, Mohamed Hersi, expressed his considerations again in January, stating that the ETA was “not the identical as visa-free.” Hersi argued that it may make it harder for potential guests to come back to Kenya, particularly these unfamiliar with the appliance course of.
A Kenyan entrepreneur, Gina Din, additionally criticized the coverage, stating, “The ETA isn’t progress—it’s nonetheless a visa, including one other bureaucratic layer and making journey to Kenya tougher, not simpler.”
The ETA requires vacationers to offer flight particulars and resort bookings, in addition to pay a price of $30 (£24) for a keep of as much as 90 days.
Regardless of these considerations, experiences reveal that the introduction of the ETA has not discouraged tourism to Kenya. The nation is reported to have welcomed over a million worldwide guests within the first half of 2024, marking a 21% improve in comparison with the identical interval within the earlier 12 months.
The Kenya Tourism Board has highlighted this progress as proof that the tourism sector stays sturdy, even with the brand new journey necessities in place.
Kenya’s fall within the AVOI rankings is important, because the nation was beforehand seen as a frontrunner in easing visa necessities for African guests. The AVOI, supported by the African Union and the African Improvement Financial institution (AfDB), evaluates international locations’ openness based mostly on visa insurance policies. The report famous that Kenya’s requirement for ETAs “previous to journey for many travellers from different African international locations lowered its rating.”
Different African international locations, akin to Benin, The Gambia, Rwanda, and Seychelles, have ranked highest in visa openness, permitting Africans to enter with out a visa. In distinction, international locations like Sudan, Libya, Equatorial Guinea, and Eritrea rank on the backside of the index.
The AVOI report additionally noticed that, whereas there was some progress, the general development in Africa’s visa openness has proven a slight decline. AfDB director Pleasure Kategekwa said, “Africans proceed to require visas for probably the most half to enter different African international locations,” which contradicts the continent’s aspirations for regional integration.
