The impact of east Africa community on immigration policies: case study of Kenya immigration policy

Abstract

This study endeavors to examine the impact of East Africa Community integration on Immigration Policies and in particular the Kenya Immigration Policy. The study sought to achieve the following specific objectives: To investigate the effect of East Africa integration to Immigration Policies in Kenya. To establish how free movement of persons has impacted on immigration. To establish how free movement of services and labor influences the issuance of work permits by Kenya. To establish how the rights of residence and establishment has affected alien management in Kenya. The study used both Primary and Secondary source of data. The units of observation was department of EAC and that of immigration with emphasis being the Permit Section, Administration and border stations that neighbor both Tanzania and Uganda. The findings of the research show that Kenya Immigration Policy has undergone a lot of changes both in form and content leading to new, open, liberal and progressive less restrictive policies. The security experts hold the opinion that there are more security risks given the nature of regional borders leading to trans-border crimes such as human trafficking , smuggling in persons and goods including the infiltration of contraband goods, drugs and psychotropic substances.