Hundreds of Burundian nationals flooded their country’s embassy in Nairobi on Monday, September 7, 2026, seeking emergency travel documents and passports to return home following President William Ruto’s order targeting foreign-owned small businesses.
​Long queues formed early Monday morning along Dennis Pritt Road in Nairobi’s Kilimani area, where the Embassy of the Republic of Burundi is located. Luggage, plastic bags, and suitcases piled up inside the compound and along adjacent streets as crowded cyber cafés processed paperwork for anxious citizens preparing for an immediate exit.
​The mass rush follows an announcement by President Ruto on Wednesday, September 2, during a meeting with Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) at State House, Nairobi. Ruto directed the Ministry of Investments, Trade, and Industry to begin enforcing strict measures against undocumented foreign hawkers and small-scale retail traders.
​”We have not built investor confidence so that hawkers can come to Kenya,” President Ruto stated. “The investor confidence we have built is for investors to come to Kenya, not hawkers and traders.”
​The directive sparked widespread panic among East African migrants, particularly the estimated 16,000 Burundian refugees and asylum seekers living in Kenya who rely on informal retail, mobile money services, and street vending.
Outside the embassy, 18-year-old Burundian trader Munezero Farnke expressed his distress, noting he had lived in Kenya for three years without formal papers. Others, including Pastor Jean-Baptiste Ndayizeye, voiced fear over growing xenophobic sentiments and reported instances of harassment from local neighbors following the president’s remarks.
​Main figures across both governments scrambled to manage the economic and diplomatic fallout. Korir Sing’oei (Kenya’s Foreign Affairs Principal Secretary) clarified on Sunday that legally documented foreign workers and small traders remain fully protected under Kenyan law.
“Burundian nationals and all East Africans… are free to live in Kenya as long as they conduct their businesses according to the law.”
Lee Kinyanjui (Kenya’s Trade Cabinet Secretary) & Juma Mukhwana (Industry Principal Secretary) Tasked by President Ruto to launch enforcement actions and engage stakeholders on a pending parliamentary bill reserving local, low-capital trade exclusively for Kenyan citizens.
National Police Service (Kenya) Issued a statement cautioning the public against targeting foreign traders, adding that no formal reports of violence or organized harassment had been confirmed.
​Despite official assurances that only undocumented individuals operating illegally face enforcement, the Burundi Ministry of Foreign Affairs held emergency regional consultations with East African Community (EAC) representatives as hundreds of its citizens chose to depart rather than face arrest or harassment.
