Kenya has been placed on high alert after fresh reports emerged on Monday, June 16, suggesting the United States is planning to expand its travel restrictions, targeting tens of African countries.
The fresh plans were outlined in an internal cable from the U.S. State Department and signed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio. According to the cable, 36 more countries are set to be added to the U.S.'s travel ban list.
In what is a worrying statistic, 25 of the targeted countries are in Africa, a fact that has fuelled concerns that Kenya could be next if the new U.S. conditions around immigration and security protocols are not met.
The move follows a proclamation signed earlier this month by U.S. President Donald Trump, barring citizens of Chad, the Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Libya, Somalia, and Sudan from travelling to America.
From June 9, these citizens will not be allowed to travel to the US, and they are part of a 12-strong list of countries worldwide facing the same measure.
If the leaked diplomatic cable first reported by the Washington Post is anything to go by, the U.S. is not done with restrictions. As per the report, if specific benchmarks are not met within 60 days, the countries will be marked as non-compliant and could face full or partial suspension from entry into the United States.
Among the African countries identified in the potential ban are Nigeria, Ghana and some of Kenya's neighbours like Ethiopia, Uganda, Tanzania, and Zambia.
Some of the concerns raised in the cable include the inability of some governments to issue reliable identity documents, weaknesses in passport security systems, a lack of cooperation over deportations, and cases of visa overstays.
The cable clarified that not all the issues apply to every country on the list. However, 36 nations were given a strict deadline to submit action plans demonstrating efforts to address the concerns raised.
While Kenya has not been named in the initial group, the criteria being used in banning countries could easily rope the country into the US's bad books. Notably, Kenya has previously come under scrutiny over passport fraud, delays in processing deportation cases, and concerns about data integrity in its immigration database.
Meanwhile, the African Union tried to intervene in the travel ban on African countries by calling for dialogue, but the continental body's appeal appears to have been snubbed.
In the AUC's statement, the commission called for a more diplomatic approach, urging the U.S. government to embrace a framework that was rooted in dialogue.
