Economy
Kenya up two positions in visa openness ranking
Tuesday December 19 2023
Travellers at an airport in Kenya. FILE PHOTO | BONFACE BOGITA | NMG
Kenya has moved up two places to position 29 in the visa ranking for African countries, even as the country remains the second least accessible for visitors in the East African region.
The Africa Visa Openness Index (AVOI) 2023, shows that Kenya’s decision to extend visa-free entry to nationals of Djibouti and Mozambique boosted the ranking on Visa openness across the continent.
The report by the African Development Bank (AfDB) shows that Rwanda leads in the region followed by Burundi, Ethiopia, and Tanzania—perhaps an indication of why President William Ruto abolished the visa requirement for visitors to Kenya effective January 2024.
Read: Review rules to make Kenya visa-friendly
Kenya’s visa openness ranking in Africa and globally is set to improve next year when the country removes the requirement of visas for all visitors coming to Kenya.
“Kenya’s improvement was to extend visa-free entry privileges to the citizens of Djibouti and Mozambique. However, both Kenya and Uganda still figure in the lower half of the AVOI’s country rankings AfDB says in the report.
“Three East African Community member states—Burundi, Rwanda, and Tanzania—are among the AVOI’s top 20 performers this year. Indeed, Rwanda holds a perfect score.”
Kenya had last year fallen to position 31 from 28 in 2021 in the visa openness ranking, after the government-imposed travel restrictions to curb the spread of the Coronavirus pandemic.
A visa is a permit to enter, leave, or stay for a specified period in a country. Nationals of 32 countries require visas to enter Kenya while citizens of 19 nations on the continent do not require a visa.
Read: Kenya drops in ranking of Africa visa friendly States
The visa-free access, announced on Jamhuri Day, marks the latest effort to grow the number of tourists and business people jetting into Kenya from the 1,465,175 (excluding those in transit) who arrived last year.
