The government has drawn rules that would govern the visa-free entry regime that was declared by President William Ruto in his Jamhuri Day speech last month.
The Kenya Citizenship and Immigration (Amendment) Regulations, 2023, says persons visiting Kenya must register on a portal to be established by the immigration director.
The rules drafted by Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki say that persons travelling or intending to travel to Kenya would be prescreened ahead of their entry.
“The director (Immigrations) shall establish an Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) system to facilitate prescreening of travellers entering the country,” the regulations read.
“Each person intending to travel into the country shall apply to the director for an electronic travel authorisation through the electronic portal and have the authorisation before embarking (on their journey),” the rules state.
Kenya Civil Aviation Authority recently clarified that the portal was yet to go live, hence the reason travellers are still being asked to apply for entry visas.
"All travellers coming to Kenya from countries that require visas shall continue applying for visas in the usual manner until the government communicates the change in programme to the ETA system," KCAA said.
Once the system is up, travellers would be required to provide details of their biographical information, travel itinerary, and “any other information relating to the application that the director may require.”
Passengers would have to state their official travel document number, issuing state, document type, date of expiry, surname, nationality, date of birth, gender, seating information, baggage information, visa number, primary residence, destination address, place of birth, port of origin, port of clearance, passenger name record locator number or unique identifier.
The government has further warned carriers against transporting into the country, passengers who have not obtained electronic travel authorisation.
“Each carrier coming into the country shall not onboard a passenger who does not hold a valid Electronic Travel Authorisation,” the regulations read, charging captains of the various carriers with the responsibility to ensure compliance with the directive.
“The captain in charge of a carrier shall ensure that each passenger on board the aircraft holds a valid Electronic Travel Authorisation.”
The rules further provide that any carrier who brings a person who has no valid ETA into the country, would return the passenger to their origins.
“…the carrier shall return that passenger to his or her last port of call or country of origin,” the regulations read, adding that airlines that violate the rule would be surcharged Sh200,000 for every non-compliant passenger.
There are hints that some other processes await the passengers despite obtaining the said travel authorisation.
“Possession of an Electronic Travel Authorisation shall not constitute final authority to enter the country,” the regulations further state in part.
Carriers, would on their part, be required to submit to the Immigration director ‘advance passenger information (API) and passenger name record (PNR)’ 24 hours before scheduled flight departure.
“Passenger name record shall be provided no later than two hours to the scheduled flight departure time if no PNR data is available 24 hours before the scheduled departure time,” the rules read.
Carriers and their agents would also be required to register with the immigration director and transfer data necessary to respond to a threat – actual or potential – of a specified offence.
Those who provide erroneous, faulty or misleading data would be charged a penalty of US$10,000 (Sh1.6 million).
Immigration officers would assess ETA applications by comparing the information against databases of persons under the watch list to detect and prevent crimes.
"'Watch list' means a list that is used to watch or track the activities or movements of criminals and persons who have been found guilty of any offence involving stolen and lost travel documents, criminal deportees, suspected terrorists and other persons of interest to the intelligence community,” the regulations read.
“Where an Immigration Officer determines that a passenger or crew member should be subject to further examination by a control agency, the immigration officer shall give that control agency access to Advance Passenger Information or Passenger Name Record data or the result of processing that data.”
The control agencies are the Directorate of Immigration Services, Directorate of Criminal Investigations, NIS, Kenya Revenue Authority – Customs, and Port Health.