Ruto orders foreign traders to close small businesses, prompting fear

Undocumented East Africans given 90 days to obtain required documents

NAIROBI, Kenya — In Kibera, one of Nairobi’s largest informal settlements, vendors set up for the day as commuters hailed matatus along the roadside. But for foreign nationals who run small businesses here, the past week has been far from ordinary. President William Ruto last week ordered authorities to shut down small-scale businesses operated by foreign traders, saying such work should be left to Kenyans, and gave affected operators until this week to comply.

At a matatu terminal in Nairobi, James Mogaka, who manages a hub for the country’s ubiquitous minibus taxis, said the impact was already visible. “Today they have not come. Their vehicles are not here,” he said.

Mogaka said one of his drivers was too frightened to come to work because he was worried about his wife, a Burundian national who runs a fruit business. “The guy is even afraid that people might come to chase away the wife,” Mogaka said. “I really don’t know where we are heading.”

The directive has drawn a mixed reaction in Nairobi’s central business district. Local trader Robert Kiberenge opposed the move, saying, “The president is just trying to divert our attention from more pressing issues. We have no problem with foreigners doing small businesses in Kenya.”

Graduate Kiprono Kutuny offered a different view. “I concur with him,” Kutuny said, referring to Ruto. “The government needs to protect the traders and small business people, but you find that these people who come from different foreign countries have taken these businesses and they are doing it in a cheap labor.”

Kenya is East Africa’s economic hub and is known for its relative political stability. The United Nations estimated roughly 993,000 international migrants were living in Kenya in 2024.

The government has said the policy is intended to protect Kenyan traders in a crowded small-business sector, where competition from foreign nationals has become an increasingly contentious issue.

Economist Edward Kusewa criticized the directive as the wrong move. “I think it’s very uncalled for,” he said. Kusewa argued the policy could undermine the principles of the African Continental Free Trade Area, which aims to ease the movement of goods and people across borders. “These people contribute a lot to the economy. They pay taxes directly and I think this is going to have an impact on the Kenyan economy.”

The directive comes amid rising tensions over migration and foreign-owned businesses in other parts of Africa — including restrictions on non-citizens running certain businesses in Tanzania and a resurgence of xenophobic violence in South Africa.

Ruto faces voters next year, with the debate over who gets to operate small businesses unfolding against a backdrop of economic pressures and concerns over jobs and livelihoods.

As the government tried to reassure those affected, foreign nationals — many from neighboring countries including Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo — turned to their embassies for help securing documents to return home.

On Tuesday, the government gave undocumented East African nationals 90 days to obtain or update the documents required to stay and do business in Kenya. But for many, the fear of what comes next has already taken hold.