Due to the recent changes at the Kenya Immigration  Services after the appointment of the new Director, there is renewed enforcement of all the laws and policies on all matters Immigration. Consequently, all applications for work permits or any other immigration related services, are required to be 100% compliant with the laws and regulations. To this end, applications for Class D work permit MUST have a Kenyan understudy for them to be received or processed. Failure to do this will not only delay the process but also reduce the chances of approval by nearly 50%! One could correctly say this requirement is cast in stones now!

In my view, this is not new but due to weak enforcement of the same in the past, permits were being processed   without complying with this provision….this now has changed and people need to comply. The main reason for this is to ensure skills/jobs are  transferred from the expatriates to Kenyans in the specified  time frame because the government of Kenya position is that Kenyans are well qualified to run the economy.

It will  therefore be very important to ensure that suitable Kenyans are identified to understudy respective expatriates holding  work permits…I am not sure if there are exemptions but if that is to happen, then there must be very clear justifications for it.

Keep watching this space for anything new about Kenya Immigration issues…especially on what the passing of the The Security Amendments Bill 2014 will mean to seekers of  Immigration services not forgetting the crackdown on NGO operating  in Kenya and the order by government for them to report to the NGO coordination board to account for all expatriates holding work permits under their sponsorship!..we are living in very interesting times as the government of Kenya moves to strengthen all security related operations including Immigration.