Government Launches Fresh Registration of Foreigners in Kenya
The Ministry of Interior and Coordination of Government has on Monday launched a fresh work permit verification and registration exercise for all foreigners working in the country.
Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiangi said records show there are currently 34,000 registered foreigners holding permits to work in Kenya, but thousands others remain unregistered.
“The launch is part of a process to clean up the register. The number of bona fide foreigners with working permits is far much less compared to the number of those working in the country."
“The process of registering afresh will be seamless,” the CS said about the 60-day exercise.
The CS said his ministry spends about Sh360 million annually to deport foreigners who are in the country illegally, and he is keen to cut the unnecessary budget.
“We can do more with the Sh360 million. Is it fair? I personally would like to discourage to this idea of spending public resources to deport people,” the CS asserted.
“We can improve some of our border posts in the country using the money.”
He noted that the government plans to review the law so that foreigners found to be in the country illegally pay for their air ticket back to their countries. Those who can't afford will work for it while in jail, the CS said.
Matiang'i said a crackdown on foreigners who will not have applied for legal status in the country will be launched after the end of the exercise.
Comments (10)
Meanwhile: Then Kenyan IMMIGRATION Officials are Minting money (by Dishing out to ILLEGAL Foreigners "FREE Kenyan Passports and VISAs for Kitu Kidogo").
I once worked with a Cameroon guy whose name was Njoroge Mungai. He could barely pronounce the name. When l asked him how he got the name, he said in Kenya all you needed was a little bribe. I was ashamed. Mind you, that was his legal name on his passport.
Good Example.
360 million to deport foreigners? What is with all the inflated figures kila pahali? They probably spend about 10 million, rest is pocketed.
Kenya is a Country CURSED with the CURSE of CORRUPTION.
Guest1, I thought you said that Kenya was amoral country. I would not expect CURSE OF CORRUPTION in amoral country .Would you?
How many Kenyans in Diaspora use fake social security number.The one given is always written u cannot work without dhs authorisation But pple make one!!So Guys use of fake documents are seen in every dammm country so hio ya a Cameroonian dude is the same.He May work with pp but he is not in the system if it can b researched deeper coz am sure his finger prints were not taken??What am saying is this use of fake things r everywhere thou it need to b stopped.How many Kenyans have married illegal for papers.Ooohh I can count thousands both in USA n uk to mention a few.So tuwache kuongeanga unegative all the time about our country.All the foreign embassies,UNEP offices,foreign companies need to b interrogated fully juu this workers working illegally r many there.Also all the foreign NGOs
@Mkenya Halisi. what you have said is true. The use of "fake things are everywhere". But with respect to mambo ya makaratasi in USA, you will hardly find out that immigration officers are involved. In other words,you cannot bribe an immigration official and get proper papers,while here in Kenya, Immigration officers have been blamed for issuing citizenships after kitu kidogo.From what Iknow, in USA,fake papers are usually issued by crooks/opportunists who have nothing to do with immigration. In fact most of the fake papers issuers are usually illegal immigrants themselves finding a way to survive.
Haiya states watu wanafanya hizo mambo.... hawaogopi trump defiant guy
Why work permits are issued to foreigners for jobs that Kenyans themselves can do? This is all because of corruption in the immigration department. These people are responsible for the high unemployment rate in Kenya. But the problem is not only about foreigners getting work permits for jobs which Kenyans themselves can do. The other problem is, what about those foreigners who have bribed and acquired Kenyan Citizenship? I suggest the government should investigate all the foreigners who have acquired Kenyan Citizenship within the past 20 years on how and on what grounds they acquired the Kenyan Citizenship.