By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Kenyan nationals will now be allowed to visit South Africa for three months at a time without having to apply for a visa.
The announcement was made in Nairobi on Wednesday during President Cyril Ramaphosa’s state visit to the country, and is a long-awaited reciprocation of a visa-free regime that has applied for the past few years to South Africans visiting Kenya.
“This dispensation will be available to Kenyans for a 90-day period in a given year. Meaning that yes we can use the 90 days, 10 days, 20 days for the full year. Kenyans will have a full 90 days, said Ramaphosa.”
He confirmed that the new dispensation will start in January 2023.
“This will also be underpinned by other processes that we have agreed should take place. [That is] close monitoring of the implementation of this process and also be able to have a return policy of those…elements that would be undesirable to be able to be returned to Kenya,” he said.
Ramaphosa said the move will strengthen the relationship between the two countries.
“More importantly [the agreement strengthens] the people to people contact. Kenyans and South Africans have multiplicities of relations both business, social, communal and at relative level. They want to be able to travel and tourism between our two countries will be greatly enhanced through this,” he said.
President William Ruto said that a return policy had also been agreed when immigration laws and regulations were breached.
“Kenya considers South Africa a strategic ally and we are committed to building stronger economic ties between our nations,” he said.
In his opening remarks, Ramaphosa congratulated Ruto on his election as the fifth president of the Republic of Kenya.
“This state visit demonstrates the strength and significance of our bilateral relations. This visit takes place barely a year after a very successful state visit to South Africa by former president Uhuru Kenyatta in November last year.”
During talks, the two countries also signed agreements and Memoranda of Understanding in the areas of correctional and prison services, housing and human settlements, arts and culture and schools of government.
“We are committed to ensure that the agreements and Memoranda of Understanding that we have signed now and in the past will be implemented fully,” he said.
Ramaphosa said that as leading economies in their respective regions, South Africa and Kenya had a key role to play in resuscitating economic activity in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.
He said that South Africa and Kenya should work together for African economic integration by substantially increasing trade and investment between the two countries.
Ramaphosa and Ruto also praised the Ethiopia peace agreement signed last week in South Africa and brokered by the African Union.
They appealed to the parties to “ensure full implementation of the agreement to reach a lasting political settlement.”
The Kenyan and South African leaders also directed their trade ministers to address barriers that limit trade between the two countries.
The two nations are among the strongest economies on the African continent.