Kenya has plunged in the latest rankings of how open it is to visitors from other African countries despite introducing a “visa-free policy” earlier this year.
It dropped 17 places to 46th out of 54 nations, according the 2024 Africa Visa Openness Index (AVOI).
Last year, President William Ruto was highly praised after announcing that Kenya would drop visa requirements for all visitors from the continent.
But in their place most travelers now have to apply online for authorization before leaving their country, which some have criticized as “a visa under another name”.
The system, known as the Electronic Travel Authorization (ETA), determines if applicants are eligible to travel to Kenya and can take up to three days to be processed.
Citizens from the East African Community regional bloc are exempt.
The AVOI, supported by the African Union and run by the African Development Bank Group (AfDB), evaluates accessibility of African countries based on visa policies.
It says Kenya’s “requirement for ETAs prior to travel for most travelers from other African countries lowered [its] score”.
Looking at the continent overall, AfDB director Joy Kategekwa said the fact that “Africans continue to require visas for the most part to enter other African countries is one of the most profound contradictions to the continent’s aspirations on regional integration”.
She noted that the report also “investigates the question of [ETAs] which, notwithstanding intent, resemble features of a visa”.
The report says that the “introduction of ETAs by some countries added additional layers of requirements to the traveler and did not facilitate ease of movement”.
Last October, President Ruto said Kenya would be going “visa-free” beginning in January this year, noting that the country was “the cradle of mankind”.
But the latest ranking has come as no surprise to some Kenyans.
“I did raise this very matter in January 2024,” says Mohamed Hersi, a hotelier and former chairman of the Kenya Tourism Federation.
In January, Mr. Hersi, said that the ETA was “not the same as visa-free”, and could make it more difficult for potential visitors to come to the country.
Others have called for change in the policy.
“The ETA isn’t progress—it’s still a visa, adding another bureaucratic layer and making travel to Kenya harder, not easier. Time for a serious rethink on accessibility,” says Kenyan entrepreneur Gina Din.
