Kenya gives foreign traders 90-day ultimatum

0:00Hello there and welcome to Focus on Africa. I am Kaci Obona in Lagos, Nigeria. Fear and anxiety have grouped some foreign nationals who own businesses in Kenya, following a 90-day directive by the government to regularize their immigration status, work permits and business licenses. What's behind the directive and how feasible is it? There was a directive by the president that the trade parliament and the Ministry of Investment trade and industry which I had to look into the issue of foreign citizens who were in the country and engaging in business or work while their permits did not allow that. So this will basically apply as issue because the existence of visas with designated categories is not a UC. And in Sudan, Mohammed Jamal, a photographer who fled the conflict in El Fasher, has switched from

1:03documenting the war in his country to documenting weddings and joyous moments amidst the displacement suffered in many parts. What does his lens mean to the couples and families captured? The most important thing for me in taking these photos is preserving the memory of the community. People outside might think that the war has stopped but it's still going on. Life keeps going. It's Tuesday, September 8th. We start in Kenya where the government has given foreign nationals running small-scale businesses 90 days to regularize their immigration status, work permits and business licenses.

2:03In a statement, state house spokesperson Hussein Mohammed said the exercise will be coordinated with the embassies of affected nationals. Many foreigners who have built their livelihoods in Kenya say this new directive has caused anxiety with some of them opting to close their businesses. It's affecting us a lot as a community, as a businessman around Jamur area especially. By now, just people are afraid they are frustrated and they are obligated to close a business today because of some goons they are planned to come and rob businesses and the broke. And we got a life-threatening from the goons. This is really hard on me. I have a Burundian husband, he has left me with five children. He fled after the president's announcement. Now I have to do small jobs to feed my children. I don't know who will help me. We have co-existed well with our Burundian and Ugandan friends.

3:05Well, there has been no problem walking with them then. Everyone does his own business without any conflict. Why are they being forced out now? I came here to seek documents for going home, but we don't prepare to go home. Even if I have something to say, there is no customer to sell for now. I have a kid, but I have been told I can't travel without paper and my babies. While issuing the directive last week, Kenyan president William Ruto said jobs by local traders and hawkers need to be protected. It cannot be that a person comes from China or elsewhere to be a hawker or open a small shop. We have not improved investor confidence for hawkers to come to Kenya. This is only for investors. Kenya's trade ministry later clarified that the order targeted foreign nationals operating businesses without work permits.

4:08Here is the Kaya cabinet secretary of investment, trade and industry, Lee Kenyan, Julie. There was a directive by the president that between parliament and the Ministry of Investment, trade and industry which I had to look into the issue of foreign citizens who are in the country and engaging in business or work while their apartments did not allow that. This was basically a planned issue because the existence of visas for the designated categories is not a new thing. There was also a feeling that there was need for us to create a greater clarity. Therefore, working with parliament will be trying to look at how this can be done. Having said that, it is important that Kenya has also signed specific agreements, including the East Africa community, where there is a provision for three movement of goods and passons. Therefore, citizens within the East Africa community have an opportunity to work

5:11through business Kenya as well as they are here to the visa requirements for application. Other nationals from all to the East Africa community can also do business and also work here, starting to then getting the regressant documentation for that purpose. But it is important to say that Kenya is guided by the rule of law, respect the constitution and everything done within the blessings of the constitution. Despite the announcements, there were no visible signs of enforcement in Nairobi on Monday. The government has also warned against harassment or intimidation of foreign nationals. Migrants from the region have been working in barbershops and salons, construction, operating motorbike taxes and streets vending. For years, some local traders have complained they have been squeezed out of the market by foreign competitors with greater access to capital.

6:12For them, this is a long awaited intervention. We used to offload tracks of goods for 2000 Kenya shirings, but since they came, the broodians only take 1,000 shirings. So what does all of this crackdown mean for foreigners and Kenyans? I spoke to Kwame O'Wino, the head of the Institute of Economic Affairs in Kenya. Well, the announcement was reported sometime last week, and I think, early today, we've seen Kenyans reacting. It's not long, but basically, consequences are serious. Reacting to that, I tried to flush out foreigners. Some Kenyans read it as a signal to show hostility towards people mostly from Central Africa, being in Kenya, the Grundians, the few Rwandans, making some competencies. I don't know that this should be an excuse, but I think part of it has been that fact that economic policy, Kenyans call it cost of leaving, but I just think incomes haven't been growing. When incomes don't grow, obviously, sometimes blaming the foreigner becomes a good excuse. And I don't know that that's what they present intended, but he's what has been chosen to validate.

7:15Feelings of hostility that some Kenyans may have towards foreigners. That's a bad idea. But what does this mean for Kenya's small scale traders? I don't know that it has any meaning to be honest. It will not have any consequences, but just basically the fact that they're just lashing out at vulnerable people, their foreigners. It's easy for anybody who's feeling frustrated either because your business isn't working. Or forever, the reasons people who might have concern about the fact that public policy, an economic policy in general, has not quote and quote generated sufficient income, growth in their income, a tough environment in general in Kenya, so that as a signal to blame for in us for taking jobs or raising competition for domestic people, coming from the economic nationalism, which is the view that look can an economy. It's a bad argument, but the view that can an economy should dominate, should be dominated by small scale enterprises from Kenya. That's the effect. I think it's bad timing, terrible phrasing, coming up with the fact that there's been really, really economic pressure on Ken and household generally. Not just small businesses, but everybody seems to feel it.

8:15It's something that we'd forethought the present could have for sale, but its consequences are not good. But if you do not see how this could play any role, concern Kenyans' small traders, what about the foreigners who are being targeted? You can see, I mean, many of them are going to be trying to get their way out. It's just that detecting, of course, it might be a minority, but detecting hostility from Kenyans. And for that reason, some of them are interpreting their lives in danger. And a minority, especially if they are foreigners, would suffer the consequences, but definitely for a foreigner, the risk to life, to their property, and perhaps sometimes to their families, because some of them might have them here. But I don't think that even if Kenyans flashed out all of them, assuming, and you know, the point here is not whether they're here legally or not, but they are lost within East Africa, which allow for an application or a formal process for most of them to be here. So, right now, it doesn't seem to be as if anybody is making that distinction. So, even if all of them, and I don't think there's many as these being claimed, even if all of them went out,

9:15it's not going to ease the job problem in Kenyans or even make businesses that are suddenly more successful. Kwame, I have also seen a few social media videos that allege Berundians, especially trooping to the embassy of Berundi in Kenya. What do you think this could have in implications when it comes to diplomatic relations between Kenya and the countries of these persons who have been targeted? Well, I think the first thing is that it lies in the mouth of Kenyan policy makers to say that we support East African community integration, because I think that this Berundians are part of the East African community. So, the first thing it undermines is its precious pressure on Kenyan to justify that, really, is this policy that we actually believe in, and do East African community institutions really matter, because this is not the way it should be handled, regardless of the fact that it's also a violation of Kenyan law to begin with. That's just starting with that. And I think it blows the myth of pan-Africanism as having any meaning, right? So that it's whenever it's politically convenient, then these people could be not just targeted in this way,

10:19but that those rules mean that people don't feel secure, regardless of what rules exist in the books. Do you see this becoming a case of South Africa? No, I don't think it will go that far, because as you've seen as well Kenyan thinking about it saying, look, this was bad phrasing. It comes in a week in which, of course, fast present rules about, I mean, present statements, about private farm from India, and then obviously from the domestic environment. Everybody is clear that these are not policy choices that they can encounter with support, but I haven't seen people working around with weapons in a systematic way, and with the government being completely and responsive, and coming off late of it. So I don't think it will go that far, because you can see pushbacks from many Kenyans as well, and people are calling national institutions to respond to it. So I don't think it will go that far, but also the fact that in Kenya, it's mostly this incidence that I've only taken place in Europe. I mean, the spread of East Africa and throughout the country is a little bit more. So we just let's hope that this response is effective in helping the Kenyan state to take its responsibilities here a little more seriously and an act.

11:26Many thanks to Kwame O'Wino, CEO, Institute of Economic Affairs in Kenya. This is focus on Africa from the BBC World Service. For the last three years, we have been covering the ongoing civil war in Sudan, from mass displacement of people to the use of sophisticated weapons used in the attacks. But today, we're looking at something different, how people are freezing joy, despite the conflict. Capturing those moments is Mohammed Jamal, a photographer from Daphore, who was forced to flee the violence in El Fasher. He now lives in a camp in Tohila, which is home to thousands of people displaced by the conflict. For years, Mohammed documented Sudan's wars, capturing images of displacement, loss and survival. But now, he's pointing his camera at something very different, weddings, families and communities coming together to celebrate some of life's happiest moments.

12:33Our reporter, Mohammed Zakaria, spoke to him about his photographs and why capturing joy has become so important to him. He began by telling me about his conversation with Mohammed Jamal and his work. The weddings are one of the few moments where people celebrating life, this episode, most of the images coming from Sudan, right now showing the destruction and hunger and displacement. I am Mohammed Jamal Jibril from North Delfus state, El Fasher. I work as a photogonalyst here in Tohila. Tohila is an internally displaced persons camp. Right now, we are living in the middle of our war. But the work of Mohammed Jamal also shows us another part of the story, like people celebrating moments of dignity and joy and hope. He's reminded us that people continued to dream, and love, and built families even in the hardest time.

13:38There was started out of nowhere. No one expected it. El Fasher became one of the cities that was caught in the line of fire. I thought, what do I do? I have to get out of the city. I was being threatened personally too because I was filming. When I came to Tohila, they were receiving people coming from El Fasher in very large numbers. I found people forced to eat animal feed. There was no relief aid. I thought, how can I help these people? How can I get the voices of all these people out to the world? So I chose photogonalyst so that I could shine a light on the perspective of the community we come from. Could you tell us about the emotions of the faces we would see in his pictures? It's like full of contrast. You will see the happiness mixed with sad and excretion. People are happy also at the same time. But also feel deep inside, feeling loose.

14:39Many families have lost loved ones and lost homes and their dreams. But also, within the choice to smile and choose to love and choose to meditate this time. I have photographed a lot of weddings. The thing that I always see through the photographs is that there is something broken in this generation. Everyone in the camp is a victim of the war. They are feelings that show up during weddings. Not exactly sadness and aren't exactly joy either. People are living with something deeper than the sadness itself. So, you see all these kinds of feelings, feelings of loss and also the feeling of happiness for the starting a new life and the start to building a family.

15:44Talk to us about what his camera reveals about life there that might otherwise may have gone or noticed even with the naked eye. After you being displaced, like many people in the camps, at last their lives, their ones, their families and the people in the camp becoming neighbors. And over time, they also become like a one family and they know each others and the daily life in the camp. They start to make a very, very strong relationship. It's growing in this place built around survivor and they're choosing to marry. The war also in this time, saying another things, the war killed the people but they choose to marry and they decide to start to each others and build a new food shelter for them. Any place you go now, there's a sense that life is coming back. There are more weddings and more romantic relationships happening.

16:44They want to live and enjoy their lives. Speaking of relationships, you followed Mohammad Jamal to a couple's wedding. Tell us about this couple and how exactly did they meet? What's their love story? Yes, they are like coming from each parties. They want to come from El Fashir and the bride also come from Zalini and they were studying in university together before the war. And after the war, they met again in the refugee camp in Tovila and they decided to marry and start a new life together in this camp. And for many couples, a wedding is a family celebration, right? Our difference is that experience for couples marrying in a displacement camp. For the Sudanese community, a wedding is very, very big things that's all the family gathering together and celebrating together. And this makes a difference right now in the war time. While the Sudanese family members are scattered in different cities inside El Fashir and become refugee outside Sudan.

17:50So right now, as a ceremony and a party, it's not big like before the war. And many of the family members, they can't come and celebrate with this wedding. And this is really, really sad things, but the good things also, Sudanese community everywhere, they have sense of community. In every part of the Sudan, they feel like they are brothers. We saw that in this film, the people come from all around the camp to celebrate with the couples. Even like some of them, they don't know the couples before just hear that they are waiting for them among the IDBs in the camp. So they just come all of them to enjoy and to celebrate with them. At first, we weren't doing wedding parties or wedding events because people were coming from the war and they were completely trained. No one was even thinking about getting married. They wanted to rest their ears to get a break from the campfire.

18:50I was thinking about getting married and getting married to the family. Starting around 2024 and towards the end of 2025, they started to be this wave of weddings. And I began to feel like life was starting to come back to Tawila. Now, paint a picture for us of the wedding day. What would viewers see on a typical wedding day from the preparations to the ceremony and the celebrations afterwards? The day begins early inside the camp. Friends are really prepared to pray and the children run between tents while the neighbors bring chairs and food to share with each other and also to decorate the area. And yes, they made the decoration from whatever the materials they have. And the guests arrive and they start singing and clothing and dancing. The atmosphere is always filled with excitement in the community.

19:53Women start to relating, people beat the drums. In the neighborhood, they call it beating the dhaloka. The most important thing for me in taking these photos is preserving the memory of the community. People outside might think that the war has stopped, but it's still going on. Life keeps going. And no matter how many deaths there are, no matter how many injuries happen, people still go on living. It's like the ceremony itself, it's simple, but deeply emotional. People celebrate together, sharing meals, taking photographs and enjoying a few hours while also the reality of war is still fit into the background. But for the first time, the camp feels like a place, not a place for displacement and just more like a community celebrating a new beginning of life.

20:55What's there in moment during filming that completely changed the way you think about love, about resilience or life during conflicts in general? Yeah, the people like smiling, are laughing in this very, very hard time. They told us that moment and how I think about resilience, when I saw that people dancing and celebrating the resilience of the Sudanese community. And the love is also not like else's hardest around them. I realized resilience is not like pretending suffering. It doesn't exist, but it's like choosing to live and choosing to build a future. Many thanks to Muhammad Zakaria reporting from Sudan. And that's it on focus on Africa today. We'd love to hear from you. Please send us questions you'd like us to ask Nigeria's youngest parliamentarian, 30-year-old Rukayat Shitu, who will be speaking to for upcoming visual episode on female leadership in Nigeria.

22:10And if you'd like to give us feedback on the program or suggest stories we should cover, you can catch us via email on focusonafrica.bbc.co.uk. You can also send us a message on WhatsApp. The number is plus 254-791-269-243. And you can get in touch with me on social media at I Am on Kichit and Na and that's with Double N. Now this episode was produced by Bella Twine in Nairobi with blessing a derogha being the senior journalist in charge. David Kinion-Jui is our technical producer. And our editors are Rada Othiambu and Mariam Abdullah. I am in Kichit and I'll speak to you again soon.