‘They are free to work in Kenya’: Ruto backtracks on foreign traders after backlash
President William Ruto when he inspected the construction of Chebunyo Modern Market in Chepalungu Constituency, Bomet County.
President William Ruto has made a U-turn about how Kenya should handle traders from other countries, days after his administration was forced to clarify a directive targeting foreigners operating small businesses.
He now says that all African citizens – whether they are from the East African Community (EAC), the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) and the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) – are free to invest in Kenya.
“They are free to work in Kenya within the rules that are provided for in Kenya so that we can together be able to grow our region,” Dr Ruto said in Bomet on Saturday.
“And no citizen has a right to take the law into their hands and harm other people from other areas. Every person, from wherever they come from, will be treated fairly, in accordance with the law and made to comply with the regulations governing employment in Kenya, investment in Kenya, visit to Kenya, whether they are tourists, whether they have come to work, or whether they have come to invest,” he added.
“We will continue to be an open society because that is the DNA of Kenya.”
He was speaking during the laying of the foundation stone for Chebunyo Mother and Child Hospital in Bomet County, a project spearheaded by Amsons, a Tanzanian conglomerate.
The remarks appeared aimed at calming a debate that has gathered momentum since September 2, when the President told micro, small and medium-sized enterprise traders at State House that foreigners should not engage in small businesses in Kenya.
“We have a Bill in Parliament governing business. In that Bill, we have proposed that there is business a foreigner should do in Kenya,” he said then. “All these [foreign] hawkers doing small businesses to close them.”
He further noted that the efforts towards attracting foreign investments were in no way meant to draw hawkers to the country, giving September 7 as the date when a crackdown could begin.
The controversial directive drew support from some local traders, who say they have faced growing competition from foreign nationals in informal and small-scale trade, but it also triggered criticism from civil society organisations.
The groups warned that an indiscriminate crackdown could expose migrants, refugees and asylum seekers to harassment, profiling, extortion and violence, and argued that the order raised constitutional and international-law concerns.
On Tuesday, as pandemonium ensued across the country, with scenes witnessed of mobs roughing up foreign traders and citizens of countries like Burundi flocking to their embassies, State House announced a 90-day regularisation window for foreign nationals doing business in Kenya.
It asked them to align their immigration, work permit, registration and licensing status with the law. The statement also warned Kenyans against vigilantism, saying enforcement would be carried out by authorised State agencies and not members of the public.
But in his speech on Saturday, Dr Ruto sought to draw a broader distinction between unlawful conduct and legitimate investment.
“I know there has been a big debate about who should work in Kenya, who should invest in Kenya. Let me say this for the record: all investors have space in Kenya,” he said.
He said his administration had “gone out of our way to eliminate barriers” and remove “bottlenecks that have impeded investment” in the country. He cited foreign direct investment figures, saying inflows had grown from $1.6 billion to $3.2 billion over the past three years, including investment linked to Amsons Group.
Amsons, a Tanzanian conglomerate, has in recent months become a reference point in the debate about regional capital in Kenya after taking control of Bamburi Cement.
The company, which bid for Bamburi in 2024 and later began integrating the cement maker into its operations, has presented the acquisition as part of a Pan-African manufacturing expansion strategy.
Dr Ruto, sounding conciliatory, dedicated the final moments of his speech to calming down the tensions.
“As citizens of this country, we are believers in the East African Community. We are believers in Comesa and the Africa Continental Free Trade Area,” he said. “And citizens of all these trading zones, whether it is EAC, or Comesa or AfCFTA, are free to invest in our country.”
Follow our WhatsApp channel for breaking news updates and more stories like this.
