Writes Leo Odera Omolo

Work permit fees for the East African citizens wishing to work or invest in member countries have been waived as required by the East African Community Common Market Protocol on free movement of labor and services in the region.

This is aimed at attracting skilled workers promoting investment, improving tourism and enhancing national security in the region.

According to Kenyan Immigration and Registration of Persons Minister Gerald Otieno Kajwang’, EAC citizens visiting Kenya will now be allowed to stop for a period of up to six months without restriction from the previous maximum three months they were initially allowed to stay.

“For the Kenyan traveling to the other EAC countries, they can now obtain their travel documents at a fee of USD 4 at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, Nairobi, Busia, Namanga, Lungalunga, Taveta and at Isebania border posts that are now open for 24hours,”said the Minister.

Only Rwanda and Kenya had a bilateral agreement on free movement of people, where citizens were issued with travel documents for duration of six months while for the other member states travel documents were issued for three months.

The work permit gives the employees the right to residence with members of his family in other country, unless the members are not East African citizens

“We are exploring the possibility of harmonizing of the national identity cards once Uganda and Tanzania starts issuing identity cards for the citizens to move freely across the region,” said the Minister. Only Kenya and Rwanda are currently using machine readable and electronic national identity cards as travel documents and Uganda is joining the two soon.”

The, “third generation” national identity cards and anticipated to be in operation next year will help identify the holder as dual citizens of their home country and of East African. The cards will reduce the clearance time at the borders to a maximum of three minutes.

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