(Posted 08th January 2024)
Information has been received from Kenya that the planned switch to the Electronic Travel Authorization system has been plagued by flaws and failures and subsequently have the authorities reverted, for the time being, to the online Visa application system.
The following notice was received by ATCNews and is selfexplanatory:
While the notice is dated 02nd January has it, after a week, been re-emphasised that the system is apparently still not working at 100 percent.
While several tourism stakeholders commented to ATCNews has one regular commentator rounded up the sentiments as follows, for fear of repercussions on condition of anonymity: ‘This is a national shame for us that we fail in such an important project, and one which was globally announced. Instead of just throwing our doors open and give Visa on Arrival at no cost, do the bureaucrats revert to the online Visa application system, which was also not free of problems. I am sure we all want to know who is responsible for this failure and if perhaps there was sabotage to give the government more trouble. In any case, it is a massive PR failure and only brings confusion to travelers.‘
Meanwhile are questions from expatriates, living in Uganda and Rwanda, going unanswered too. A regional accord is granting duly registered expatriates in Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda access to the other countries Visa free through an ‘Interstate Pass‘ but there is uncertainty now if this document, issued on departure from for instance Entebbe to Nairobi by Ugandan immigration, will be sufficient to travel or if here too an ETA will be required – at a cost of more than 30 US Dollars that is.
Questions by ATCNews also went unanswered so if any reader has a response please share.
