Burundian nationals outside the Burundi Embassy with their luggage on September 9, 2026.Sitting quietly on a bench outside his beauty parlour in Kitengela, the Burundian national stared into the distance, unsure what the latest government directive meant for the life he had spent 11 years building in Kenya.Nshimirimana arrived in Kenya as a refugee at the age of 26, fleeing his hometown on the outskirts of Bujumbura at the height of civil wars exacerbated by the 2015 election. He travelled by road, registered as a refugee with the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, and was hosted by a kinsman.“I came into Kenya with a few clothes and a burning ambition,” he said. “I have never gone back to my motherland or met my parents physically. I usually video-call them.”He started as a barber before enrolling for an eight-month beauty course that enabled him to work at a spa in Nairobi’s central business district, serving middle-class women, both local and foreign.Archade Nshimirimana, 34, a beauty parlour owner in Kitengela town, on September 8, 2026.“My business has been doing well and has been able to transform my life and that of my parents back at home. I have always looked forward to expanding to other major towns in the future,” he said.In the 11 years he has lived in Kenya, Nshimirimana has also found love. He is the Burundian community welfare representative and married a Kenyan woman two years ago.But President William Ruto’s September 2 directive targeting foreigners operating small-scale businesses abruptly cast his future into doubt.The directive followed complaints from Kenyan traders over the participation of foreign nationals in small-scale businesses and informal trade. Foreigners were ordered to regularise their status, with the initial September 7 deadline causing anxiety among Congolese, Burundian, Ugandan and Rwandan nationals.In Kitengela, a rapidly growing cosmopolitan town south of Nairobi, many businesses run by non-Kenyans had been shuttered. The town hosts foreigners involved in groceries, barbershops, beauty parlours, tailoring and boda bodas.According to church records, Congolese are the dominant non-Kenyan community in the township, followed by Burundians, Rwandans and Ugandans.Kitengela has over the years become a strategic destination for refugees because of its proximity to Nairobi and availability of menial jobs.Nshimirimana said the sudden policy shift had affected him mentally and economically and was against the Treaty Establishing the East African Community (EAC), which provides for the right of citizens of partner states to live, work, trade and establish businesses under the Common Market Protocol and Kenyan immigration laws.“President Ruto made a mistake. We have foreigners, like myself, registered under UNHCR and then those who are here illegally,” Nshimirimana said. “The last seven days have been full of uncertainty and mental torture.”However, the government subsequently opened a 90-day window for foreign nationals to regularise their immigration status, work permits, business registration and licensing.Burundian nationals wait outside the Burundi Embassy in Nairobi on September 11, 2026, as they await processing of their papers and clearance to return home following a government directive requiring foreign nationals to regularise their travel documents.“I am not willing to go back to Burundi, I’m ready to comply with the Kenyan government directives. Hostility in an EAC member state is counterproductive,” he said.For 21-year-old Iradukunda Samson, hawking crisps in Nakuru town and other parts of the county has been his main source of income for the past three years.The Burundian national moved to Kenya in 2024 with the help of a Burundian friend who had already established a small business. Rather than selling coffee and mandazi, Iradukunda chose the crisps business, which had fewer hawkers.He initially struggled with the language but gradually learnt Kiswahili and established a small source of income. He buys crisps from a Kenyan supplier and sells them on the streets.His three elder brothers later joined him in Nakuru, where they live together after renting three houses at between Sh6, 500 and Sh9,000 a month.On a good day, Iradukunda makes about Sh600, which goes towards rent, food and other basic needs while also helping support his parents and siblings back home.“My friend told me to travel here instead of joining a bad company and start stealing from people since I was fresh from school. He was living with other Burundians, they accommodated me till I established myself and I started contributing to rent, food and other needs. I have employed myself, but the crisps I buy from a Kenyan. Wherever we get arrested we just call him and he would help us,” he said.His modest livelihood was thrown into uncertainty by the government's announcement.Iradukunda had recently visited his parents in Burundi before returning to Kenya, only to find himself caught up in the new directive two months later.
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