Nairobi Senator Johnson Sakaja has urged national and county governments to withdraw illegal work and business permits issued to foreigners engaging in retail trade within Nairobi.
Sakaja on Tuesday said the government must protect local small and medium sized enterprises and not "roll out the red carpet for foreigners" at the expense of Kenyans.
“We must protect our Kenyan businessmen. Enough is enough. We are glad that CS for interior started with the six Chinese,” Sakaja said.
The Senator noted that most of these foreign nationals, mainly from China, are engaging in trade despite the fact that their work permits describe them as investors and limit the kind of economic activities that they can engage in.
Sakaja has given Nairobi, Kisumu, Mombasa, Uasin Gishu and Nakuru counties 14 days to revoke business permits issued to foreigners or he will take unspecified action.
Last week Interior CS fred Matiang’i ordered the deportation of Chinese nationals engaging in local trading at Gikomba market.
Matiangi said that it is unfortunate the Chinese nationals were in the country trading illegally.
“It is illegal for foreigners to engage in local trading in Kenya. We do not have a classification of foreign traders coming to Kenya to do hawking or local trading. We will escort them to the airport, bid them bye and ensure they have their dinner at their countries by tomorrow evening,” the CS said.
