Hundreds of Burundian nationals rushed to their embassy in Nairobi this week, desperate for travel documents home, after a presidential directive targeting foreign traders sparked fear and confusion across Kenya’s immigrant communities.
The trouble began on September 2, when President William Ruto ordered foreign nationals out of hawking and small-scale retail, arguing such livelihoods should belong to Kenyans.
The announcement landed like an eviction notice rather than a policy reform—many foreign traders understood it as an immediate crackdown, with a hard deadline of September 7.
For Kenya’s Burundian community, many of them refugees and asylum seekers who depend on small businesses to survive, the message was unmistakable: leave, or prepare to.
Crowds gathered outside the Burundian Embassy on Dennis Pritt Road, some arriving with suitcases and packed belongings, others simply seeking emergency travel papers. Reports of harassment and threats deepened the fear. Reuters found Burundians describing a growing sense that they were unsafe and unwanted, with some camping outside the embassy as they waited for help.
Kenya hosts roughly 16,000 Burundian refugees and asylum seekers, a population for whom small-scale trade is often a lifeline.
Facing a fast-moving crisis, State House moved on September 8 to contain the fallout. Officials announced a 90-day window for foreign nationals to regularize their immigration status, work permits, business registration, and licenses, with those in the process treated as legally present in the meantime.
Foreign Affairs Principal Secretary Korir Sing’oei personally visited the Burundian Embassy to apologize to nationals who had faced harassment, conceding that the original directive had been misunderstood. He pledged that those eligible would be properly documented or supported in returning home voluntarily.
The panic didn’t stay confined within Kenya’s borders. Burundi’s Foreign Minister, Édouard Bizimana, confirmed he had contacted Kenya’s ambassador in Burundi, urging Nairobi to protect Burundian citizens, and warned that unchecked anti-Burundian hate speech risked straining relations between the two countries.
Nairobi insists the intent was never expulsion but regulation, maintaining that enforcement will follow only after the 90-day window closes.
