Kenyan president orders crackdown on foreigners operating small businesses

Kenyan president orders crackdown on foreigners operating small businesses

President Ruto said foreigner traders were welcome but only if they created jobs and expanded opportunities for Kenyans

Kenya's President William Ruto has directed a crackdown on foreigners running small-scale businesses, saying local traders and hawkers must be protected.

His remarks come as debate grows over the rising number of African migrants taking part in Kenya's large informal economy.

"From next week, all [foreign] traders doing those small businesses should close them," he said, while also pledging to speed up proposed laws that would bar foreigners from certain areas of trade.

Ruto said Kenya was still open to foreign investment, but insisted that investors - including Chinese traders - should generate jobs and increase production instead of competing with Kenyans in small businesses.

"It cannot be that a person comes from China or elsewhere to be a hawker or open a small shop," he said in an address to small-scale traders who had come to meet the president at State House in the capital, Nairobi, on Wednesday afternoon.

"We have made efforts to improve the economy, we have not improved investor confidence for hawkers to come to Kenya," said Ruto, who intends to run for a second term in next year's election.

It is not yet clear how many foreign nationals are engaged in small-scale trading or how many would be affected by the new crackdown.

Kenya is home to a large refugee population, some of whom live and work outside the country's refugee camps.

Government figures indicate that Kenya had about 857,000 registered refugees and asylum seekers by the end of June, with nearly 14% living in urban areas.

Kenyan law recognises refugees' right to work and run businesses, although they must secure the proper documentation. Refugees who want to work or carry out a trade or business may apply for a special permit.

In Nairobi and other major towns, migrants from the region can be seen working in barber shops and salons, construction, motorbike taxi services and street vending, as well as selling clothes, food and household goods.

Some have escaped conflict or economic hardship at home, while others have come to Kenya seeking better opportunities under the relatively free movement of people permitted within the East African Community, a regional bloc of eight countries.

The increasing presence of foreigners has at times led to tensions with local traders and workers, who accuse them of competing for scarce jobs and business opportunities.

In July, a video showing a Kenyan man confronting a Burundian trader in Nairobi and accusing him of taking opportunities from locals drew widespread criticism.

The confrontation also led Fred Ngoga, a Burundi-based expert on regional conflict prevention, to call for the protection of his country's citizens.

"The majority of Kenyans are decent and good people who welcome their brothers and sisters from Burundi," he said at the time, adding that most Kenyans had rejected the hostility aimed at the trader.

Kenya's foreign ministry also moved to reassure Burundians and other East Africans living in the country after the incident.

Although Ruto's latest action is likely to be controversial given Kenya's role as a regional economic hub, it also comes amid broader concerns about xenophobia elsewhere in Africa.

This year South Africa has experienced a wave of protests over undocumented migrants - and tens of thousands of Africans there have chosen to be repatriated voluntarily, with some saying they have faced intimidation and attacks.