Kenya is rolling back the Electronic Travel Authorization (ETA) requirement for travellers from other African countries – except Somalia and Libya – in order to boost the efficiency of the system.
- The reformation was announced in a cabinet statement, reflecting moves to ameliorate Kenya’s slump in the latest visa-openness rankings.
- In January 2024, Kenya replaced the visa system with the ETA system in an attempt to ease entry into the country and spike tourist figures that had been cratered since the 2020 COVID pandemic.
- In an ironic twist , inconveniences and delays within the ETA system made it even more difficult to travel to Kenya – as earlier predicted by some stakeholders in the sector.
In the recommended review of the ETA system, African visitors will be allowed to freely enter the country and reside for a minimum of two months. Those within the East African regional bloc can stay for six months, as mandated by the EAC Free Movement protocols. The only countries that will be exempted are Somalia, which is also part of the EAC, and Libya, due to security concerns.
Moreover, the ETA processing option is set to be expedited to allow instant approval. According to the 2024 Africa Visa Openness Index (AVOI), the three-day time frame for verification hindered last-minute and emergency travellers from making necessary trips.
During an interview with The Kenyan Wall Street, Tourism Cabinet Secretary Rebecca Miano said that the government will focus on automating the system with other relevant data from various government departments to save time needed to finalize travellers’ application. The latest review includes the introduction of an advanced passenger information/passenger name record system that will hasten processing of travellers at the country’s entry points.
Miano said that the ‘teething challenges’ witnessed in the new system would be raised in the first cabinet meeting this year, where solutions would be proposed based on consultations across all sectors. She initially conceived relieving the ‘strain of repetitive processing’ occasioned by the ETA system as a viable way of reducing the backlog of approvals. Now, the cabinet resolutions include a provision for CS Miano and her peers in National Treasury, Transport, and interior to “propose guidelines to improve travelers’ experience at all Kenyan airports” within a week.
“We need to review the ETA to make it quicker. The biggest recommendation from the report and from travellers is that it should be for multiple entry. This means, if you have your ETA now, you can use it for a year or two,” CS Miano said during the interview.
