Kenyans wishing to travel to South Africa will now pay less for business, student and medical visas following an agreement between the governments of the two countries.
Immigration Director-General Gordon Kihalangwa said Kenya had reached a deal with South Africa to reduce the application fees from the usual Sh6,800 to Sh4,700.
“South Africa relaxes visa rules for Kenyan businessmen, students and patients cutting processing costs after talks with Kenyan counterparts,” Maj-Gen (Rtd) Kihalangwa tweeted on Friday.
But Kenyans will still have to apply for visas the same way: they must meet all the other financial conditions, apply through the third party firm VFS Global, and wait for a visa for five working days.
In addition, Maj-Gen (Rtd) Kihalangwa did not specify when the new rules would take effect.
A South African High Commission spokesperson said that an official update would be made next week.
The Immigration Department says the five days will be the maximum waiting period and there won’t be any further delays.
Further information also indicated that Kenyans travelling through South Africa to its neighbours will not require a transit visa as has been the case.
However, this condition will be pegged on the number of hours Kenyans will spend in South Africa awaiting transit.
The agreement was reached after a two-day meeting in Nairobi with a delegation from South Africa.
The meeting followed a series of complaints from Kenyans on South Africa’s tough visa regime.
While Kenya grants South Africans visas on arrival, South Africa doesn’t.
Last year, South Africa imposed tough rules for Kenyans seeking to visit that country, besides imposing a service charge of about Sh6,000.
Kenya had initially retaliated with similar sanctions but suspended them in August after South African authorities sought talks.
The talks, however, never materialised until early June, when a Joint Commission of Cooperation was reached between Kenya and South Africa to deal with the imbalance in immigration rules, trade regulations and science and cultural cooperation.
Currently, South Africans coming to Kenya do not require a visa if they are in transit or plan to stay for less than 30 days.
Kenyans visiting South Africa for this period do not pay visa fees either, but must part with the service charge, an arrangement Kenyans have been protesting.
Besides a service charge on a "free" visa, South Africans also charge Kenyans visa fees of about Sh6,000 if they wish to stay longer than 30 days, meaning a single application to stay more than 30 days will cost about Sh12,000.
It is worse for Kenyans, because the new tough rules do not allow them to apply for visa renewals from within South African borders, meaning Kenyans have to return to Nairobi to renew their visas.
Kenya's Immigration Department did not clarify whether this was sorted out.
On Wednesday, the National Assembly's Committee on Foreign Relations said the stringent visa restrictions imposed by South Africa had also affected House business.
It said the conditions had made it difficult for Parliament staff to travel to South Africa, even on official duty.
“We are asking the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Immigration to give Kenyans an explanation, urgently. Many of our Parliament staff cannot travel to South Africa on short notice to perform official duties,” Mr Barre Shill, the committee’s vice-chairman, said
“We are putting a lot of pressure on the ministry because diplomacy is about reciprocation. They have imposed these conditions on us yet we don’t do it to them.”
National Assembly and Senate staff raised complaints after they faced difficulties obtaining visas to travel to South Africa for the AU summit as well as for the Pan-African Parliament session.
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