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Kenya grants South African visitors 90-day visa free stay

by Staff reporter
17 Jun 2017 at 23:09hrs | Views
Nairobi has granted South Africans additional time to visit Kenya without visas, pointing to a thawing of diplomatic relations between the two nations, Business Daily Africa reported.

Interior secretary Joseph Nkaissery says in a legal notice published last Friday that South Africans can now visit and stay in Kenya without a visa for up to three months, up from the previous 30 days.

The notice says South African "civil servants, holders of diplomatic, official or ordinary passports" can visit Kenya without visas "for a period exceeding (sic) ninety (90) days". The Ministry of Interior later clarified that there was an error in the notice, and that it ought to have read a period "not exceeding ninety (90) days".

The extended visa free travel notice further put the balance of diplomatic relations in favour of South Africa, which has been tightening visa rules for Kenyans.

Kenya has long expressed discomfort with the many hurdles its citizens travelling to South Africa continue to face with little response from Pretoria.

In particular, Nairobi has raised concerns over the high costs of South African visas as well as the extended processing period, which now takes at least five days.

The situation has been particularly unfair given that South Africans can get visas on arrival in Kenya.

Mr Nkaissery's decision may, however, be a signal that Pretoria is preparing to reciprocate the move by easing entry of Kenyans to South Africa.

President Uhuru Kenyatta had raised Kenya's concerns over South Africa's tough visa rules with President Jacob Zuma during his visit to Nairobi last year, but Mr Zuma refused to commit on measures to ease them.

South Africa claimed that its visa rules are meant to insulate it from irregular migration, a sore topic in a country that has suffered numerous bouts of xenophobic attacks against foreigners.

"We have to ensure that there are no loopholes for criminals to take advantage of," Mr Zuma said in response to questions on his country's visa policies.

Kenya's decision to issue a travel warning to civil servants visiting South Africa last month threatened to rekindle the diplomatic row, but South Africa made no public response to the memo.

Source - Business Daily Africa
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