Pressure is mounting on Kenyan President William Samoei Ruto to reverse his controversial directive to shut down small-scale businesses operated by foreign nationals, with East African stakeholders describing the order as anti-Pan-African, unlawful and a direct threat to the East African Community Common Market Protocol.
Ruto issued the directive on Wednesday, September 2nd, 2026, while addressing Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise traders at State House in Nairobi. He said that from September 7th, all foreign hawkers and small retailers must close.
“It cannot be that a person comes from China or elsewhere to be a hawker or open a small shop. From next week, all foreign traders doing those small businesses should close them,” Ruto said.
However, Ruto said his country, Kenya, remains open to foreign investment but argued that investment must create jobs and expand production, not compete with Kenyans in hawking. He directed Trade Cabinet Secretary Lee Kinyanjui and National Assembly Majority Leader Kimani Ichung’wah to fast-track the Local Content Bill, 2025.
The announcement has triggered panic, especially among Burundian and Ugandan traders in Nairobi’s informal economy, which has seen a number of Burundians queuing at their embassy in Nairobi seeking emergency travel documents.
In response, the Burundi-based government issued the harshest response, revealing that its citizens had faced dispossession and unjustified violence after Ruto’s speech and warning.
“The Kenyan government will be held responsible for anything that happens to Burundian citizens, and Burundi reserves the right to take the necessary measures under the framework of reciprocity. Kenyans in Burundi were living peacefully, but if the hate speech against Burundi continues, things will certainly change,” Burundian Foreign Minister Edouard Bizimana said.
Alexis Ntinanirwa, the Head of the Burundi community in Kenya, warned that the move could spark regional retaliation.
“This issue is not only going to cause problems for Burundians working in Kenya, but it is also going to cause problems in the region because there are also Kenyans doing these small jobs in our countries in Burundi, Tanzania and Uganda,” Ntinanirwa said.
In response to Ruto’s directive, Uganda’s State Minister for Trade, Industry and Cooperatives, Sanjay Tanna met Ugandan traders at the Ugandan High Commission in Nairobi and pledged to engage his Kenyan counterpart, while urging Ugandans to comply with Kenyan laws to avoid disruption.
The East Africa Law Society (EALS) argued that Ruto’s directive violates Article 7 and Article 13 of the EAC Common Market Protocol, which guarantees free movement of persons, services and the right of establishment. The EAC Business Council also privately warned that Tanzania’s similar ban on 15 business activities for foreigners in July 2025 is already in place, and that East Africa and Kenya would not be immune.
According to analysis, what began as a Kenyan push to protect small businesses for citizens has therefore evolved into a much larger debate. How far can individual EAC states go in protecting domestic commerce without undermining the regional bloc’s promise of integration?
Meanwhile, the Ugandan government has intensified diplomatic engagements with Kenya over citizens caught up in a crackdown on undocumented foreign traders.
However, officials from Uganda’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Office of the President blamed Kenya for delaying work permit and trading licence approvals before announcing the ban.
