Isn’t it only fair that Kenya imposed new visa rules on South Africans?

Performers take part in the annual Cape Town Minstrels Carnival, on January 4, 2014 in Cape Town. Over the last year or so, South African visa regime towards Kenya has grown from bad to worse, writes Godwin Murunga AFP PHOTO / RODGER BOSCH 

In Summary

• Whichever way, South Africa has continued to behave badly where immigration issues relating to Africans are concerned. Over the last year or so, South African visa regime towards Kenya has grown from bad to worse.

This month, the Kenya Government introduced new visa requirements for South Africans who wish to visit Kenya.

 

Affecting only ordinary visa applicants travelling to or transiting through Kenya, Kenya slapped a service charge of $70 (Sh6,000).

The required documents are almost an exact replica of what the South African High Commission requires of Kenyans wishing to visit SA.

The documents include return air ticket, invitation letter from the host in Kenya, two passport photographs, a letter from employer/Institution/College/School, and proof of funds like a bank statement. South Africans are further required to appear in person in Pretoria for biometrics.

The statement further clarifies that visas will no longer be issued on arrival in Kenya. It gives a strict five working days visa processing period.

READ: Tougher visa rules for South Africa

This new policy was initially expected to take effect on July 1, 2014 but it was postponed to September 1, 2014.

My pan-African convictions tell me this is a really bad development. But we must begin from the premise that a pan-Africanism that is practised only by some countries and not others in Africa is no pan-Africanism at all. A genuine pan-Africanism requires reciprocity, and SA is not practising that.

Since the comrades went into power in 1994, they have been unwilling to see the pan-African context of South African existence.

I am aware that there are many in South Africa who understand, believe in and practise pan-Africanist ideals. But this has not translated into SA government policy.

Perhaps, countries like Kenya, Malawi and Cote d’Ivoire have no such right to claim easy access to South Africa, but it also took public protest and stern action in Nigeria for South Africa to treat Nigerian citizens wishing to travel to South Africa decently.

FROM BAD TO WORSE

For, unlike Kenya, Malawi and Cote d’Ivoire that continued befriending the racist South African apartheid regime, Nigerians supported the anti-apartheid struggle directly by hosting South African freedom fighters and providing funding for the anti-apartheid struggle.

Whichever way, South Africa has continued to behave badly where immigration issues relating to Africans are concerned. Over the last year or so, South African visa regime towards Kenya has grown from bad to worse.

Not only do they require all the set of documents identified above, they might be the only non-European country that has outsourced visa processing to VFS Global which, according to a post on the website, is “a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Kuoni Group, a public-listed company headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland”.

Apart from exposing South Africa’s pan-African pretensions, what this has meant for Kenyans is that not only do you pay the South African Embassy for visa, you also pay VFS for handling that process thereby making visa processing more expensive. And even the private company guards at the doors have taken a cue and are often nasty to people in ways that are simply humiliating.

Some two months ago a friend failed to travel to Durban because of confusion over the process. The transfer of documents between the Embassy and the VFS Office in Parklands has simply been confusing and delayed processing.

In another case, a Nigerian student on a Fellowship programme waited for one month while her visa for internship at the International Crisis Group was being processed.

South Africa will even require fellow Africans to pay a monetary deposit as a guarantee that one will exit after their stay. These acts put SA in really bad company.

In 2014, with the drive towards a pan-African logic and with a South African heading the African Union Commission in Addis Ababa, it is simply bad for African governments to be checkmating each other on visa requirements.

But this is what South Africa has done to many Africans. I guess it’s payback time.

Godwin Murunga is Senior Research Fellow, Institute for Development Studies, University of Nairobi. gmurunga@gmail.com