A government campaign intended to regulate foreign participation in Kenya’s small businesses has taken a more troubling turn, with police arresting at least six people over alleged harassment and inflammatory remarks targeting foreigners.
Four suspects were arrested over allegations that they confronted Chinese traders in Nairobi’s Nyamakima area, demanded immigration documents and sought bribes, according to police.
Two other men, both aged 32, were arrested separately over remarks police say were intended to incite hatred and hostility against Burundian nationals and Maasai people from Tanzania.
The arrests raise a bigger question: how did a debate about business licences and work permits become a potential public safety problem?
The controversy began after President William Ruto said foreigners should not compete with Kenyans in small-scale businesses such as hawking and retail trading, arguing that foreign investors should instead establish larger enterprises and create employment.
But the rhetoric generated anxiety among some foreign communities. Burundians and Congolese living in Kenya told the Associated Press they feared for their safety, with some considering returning home.
The government has since softened the immediate enforcement approach.
Foreign business operators have been given 90 days to regularise their immigration status, work permits, registrations and business licences. Officials have also stressed that only authorised government agencies can enforce immigration and business laws.
Foreign Affairs Principal Secretary Korir Sing’oei said the government “strongly guarantee[s] the safety of all foreign nationals” and warned that harassment would not be tolerated.
That distinction is crucial.
Questions about whether someone has a valid work permit or business licence are matters for immigration officials, county governments and other authorised agencies. They do not give private citizens authority to demand documents, seize property, collect money or intimidate people because of their nationality.
DCI Director Mohamed Amin has similarly warned that freedom of expression does not extend to hate speech or advocacy of violence.
The danger is that economic frustration can easily become attached to nationality.
Kenya has high youth unemployment and a vast informal economy in which traders compete intensely for customers, space and capital. Those are legitimate economic concerns.
But blaming an entire nationality for those pressures risks moving the debate from economic policy into xenophobia.
There are already signs of public resistance to that direction. In Juja, residents were widely praised after intervening when a Burundian hawker was allegedly harassed by a Kenyan man.
The government's challenge now is twofold.
It must clearly explain which businesses, permits and activities are affected by its policy while simultaneously preventing individuals from interpreting political statements as permission to target foreigners.
The next 90 days will therefore test more than Kenya's immigration enforcement.
They will test whether the country can regulate its economy without turning legitimate concerns about jobs and businesses into hostility towards people because of where they come from.
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Category: Business · Related Topic: William Ruto
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