The Civil Society Reference Group (CSRG) has urged the government to exercise caution in enforcing President William Ruto’s directive requiring foreign nationals without work permits to leave Kenya.
CSRG boss Caleb Otieno says the forceful eviction, harassment or attacks of foreign nationals could violate Kenya’s Constitution and its international obligations.
Otieno has also called on the police to refrain from acting on verbal directives and instead wait for formal communication and clear legal guidelines from the government.
He says the government has so far not issued an official directive, gazette notice or identified the specific law being used to enforce the order.
“Actually, the one thing that is quite unfortunate is that the situation is becoming or relating to this point. Kenya has international obligations that it has to take into consideration. Some of these instruments define how we can handle some of these issues.So far, we have not seen any official directive from the government. We have not had any official gazette or any law that is being relied on. I think the country should not allow such important issues to be handled using verbal directives rather than being put into the laid-down procedures.” He said.
He says the government has so far not issued an official directive, gazette notice or identified the specific law being used to enforce the order.
“I think the country should not allow such important issues to be handled using verbal directives rather than being put into the laid-down procedures. Of course, every country has got laws on citizenship and on how they are able to handle these issues,” Otieno said.
He further cautioned against the harassment of immigrants, particularly nationals from Burundi and other countries living and doing business in Kenya.
“Having people attacking foreigners, having maybe police harassing people from Burundi or from other nationalities in Kenya is quite unconstitutional,” he stated.
Otieno also questioned claims that foreign nationals operating small businesses are taking jobs away from Kenyans.
He argued that many of the immigrants are involved in small-scale businesses that contribute to the economy and pay taxes.
“If the government is saying that these people are taking jobs, whose jobs are they taking? Because I have not seen any of them being employed as teachers or as nurses or as doctors.These are small-scale businesses and they have a very important part of the business ecosystem. They pay taxes in the country,” he added.
CSRG is therefore calling for the government to handle the matter through established legal procedures while safeguarding the rights of foreign nationals in Kenya.
