A month after President William Ruto announced the introduction of Visa-Free Entry into the country, foreigners have started to show their Dissatisfaction in the whole process and requirements.
According to Ruto’s directive, Visa requirements will replace them with Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) as a requirement to come into the country, giving requirements for the regulation and entry into the country in a bid to boost tourism.
The new Visa-Free entry ETA system, however, introduced a mandatory requirement for all travellers worldwide to file their particulars at least 72 hours before travel and must pay a fee of Ksh4,653 ($30), something that has irked international community.
Mostly, African foreigners have raised concerns of the extra costs that the ETA system comes with, that have said is piling additional costs on travel requirements when coming to Kenya including filing more paperwork before travel.
“So until 24 hours ago, as a Malawian, I could just wake up, buy a ticket and fly to Kenya in the afternoon, visa-free. Now Kenya has “removed visa” for everyone visiting Kenya, but now everyone has to pay $30 travel authorisation fee 72 hours before travel. What? Hectic.” expressed a Malawian on his X account.
Sean Mendis, an airline executive, agreed with the claim noting that the paperwork adds more wait time since travellers must add their confirmed flight, booked hotels among other details.
Each ETA is single entry and you cannot apply for the next ETA until you exit the country, meaning that you cannot travel to Kenya more often than once every 72 hrs,”This system is not something to be commended. It is basically a cash grab rather than a means of opening borders.”
“The old visa regime was far better than this “not a visa but ETA” system, especially for those who qualified for actual visa free entry in the past but now have to pay for this ‘not a visa’, or for frequent travelers who could get multiple entry visas but now have to reapply every single time.”
However, the first batch of ETA visitors have landed in the country a few days ago witbthe country receiving a total of 9,787 applications, 4,046 of which have already been processed.