Tight control of work permits for foreigners makes no sense

Sometimes it seems that the Jubilee regime is schizophrenic in the way it approaches its priorities, policies and decisions. Or that its left hand does not know or understand what its right hand is doing.

And nowhere is this starker than in the way the regime courts foreign investments, on the one hand, and on the other hand, takes a hard-line stance on giving work permits to foreigners who are not Chinese. As anyone who has tussled with Immigration at Nyayo House, Nairobi, can attest, Chinese expatriates seem favoured above all others. So much so that the Indian High Commissioner publicly complained about the delays and/or refusals to get work permits!

In the recent past, Kenya has hosted a number of world leaders and investment-related meetings always with a focus on attracting foreign investments. There was President Barack Obama attending the Global Entrepreneurship Summit; state visits by Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India, President Recep Erdogan of Turkey and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel; and the 14th session of Unctad and the WTO Ministerial Conference last month and December, 2015, respectively.

Kenya has also made it easier to set up businesses as indicated by the jump in the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business report. Now, anyone or any company investing in any country will certainly want to have trusted people running the business. That is human nature and true across and within national borders. Thus, for instance, if Nekesa were to buy a hotel in Murang’a, she would probably run it herself to ensure it operates as she wants it to, or have a close friend, relative or associate that she has confidence in, running it.

This is, especially important to small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) where investors typically have all or most of their total worth in the company. In fact, for most SMEs, a decision to invest in Kenya would mean that they have decided to move here and would eventually be interested in getting permanent residency or citizenship after a while. It is in our interests to get them to stay and build their business with confidence.

EXISTING NETWORKS

For big companies, again, getting people they can trust is crucial and they would normally source the CEOs from their existing networks to manage key aspects of the multinational. But, after years of working with locals, they know it is in their interests to get some of them at the top in these countries but only after they have confidence in them. That is how Mr Richard Etemesi and Mr Adan Mohammed rose to lead the Kenya operations of Standard Bank and Barclays Bank, respectively.

While we may wish for big multinationals to invest here, the surest sign of success as an investment destination is the numbers of SMEs. They are more flexible, and quite determined to succeed given that they have invested their lot. Most countries keen on attracting foreign investments typically have a liberal work permit regime because they understand that investments come with people and labour. This is why so many Kenyans invest in Rwanda, because the Rwandan Government understands that capital and labour move together.

Similarly, Singapore remains one of the best places to invest in and work in as a non-national and its attraction of foreign investment is legendary.

But what makes our policy of dissuading foreigners to live here even stranger is that fact that Kenya is becoming a huge exporter of talent and skills. We only need to recall the thousands of Kenyans evacuated from South Sudan when the fighting resumed in July to affirm this. And it is not only in Africa. Today, there are thousands of Kenyans working and living in the UK, USA, Australia and Canada as expatriates, not only contributing to their host country’s economy and life, but also keeping our shilling afloat with their remittances.

Imagine if these countries were to adopt a similar hard-line approach to Kenyans working and living abroad! The fact that many foreigners want to live in Kenya should not only be a point of pride for us, but it is also a sign to other investors of the potential in Kenya. After 50 years of independence, we need to have confidence that our people are competitive not just in Kenya but also globally.

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