Kenya Launches Emergency Repatriation Programme for Citizens Fleeing Anti-Foreigner Violence in South Africa

The Kenyan government has launched an emergency repatriation programme to bring home citizens caught in the rising tide of anti-foreigner hostility sweeping parts of South Africa, as displaced Kenyans report losing homes, businesses, and livelihoods to attacks targeting foreign nationals.

Kenya’s High Commissioner to South Africa, Elizabeth Choge, issued a formal safe passage notice dated June 26, informing affected citizens that the repatriation exercise would run between June 27 and July 3, 2026.

“This is to notify you that several Kenyans from various parts of South Africa will be travelling to the Kenya High Commission in Pretoria between 27th June and 3rd July 2026,” Choge stated in the notice. “Kindly note that some of these Kenyans have irregular status in South Africa and are hence proceeding to the High Commission in Pretoria to obtain travel documents to facilitate their repatriation back home by the Government of Kenya.”

The High Commission further appealed to South African authorities to allow those travelling to Pretoria unimpeded movement, stating plainly: “Please grant them safe passage.”

The exercise primarily targets Kenyans with irregular immigration status who require emergency travel documents before they can board repatriation flights. At least 50 Kenyan nationals had formally appealed for government-assisted evacuation, with many more feared to be in distress.

Affected Kenyans say they have been evicted from their homes, with businesses looted or destroyed during attacks linked to anti-immigrant activity. Anti-foreigner groups have issued ultimatums demanding that all foreign nationals vacate certain areas by June 30, deepening fear among migrant communities.

Diaspora Affairs Principal Secretary Roseline Njogu had earlier directed officials to fast-track emergency travel documents for Kenyans who lost identification papers during the violence. The High Commission was also instructed to establish temporary safe houses for displaced citizens awaiting flights home.

Official government figures put the number of long-term Kenyan residents in South Africa at approximately 27,000, though the Kenya High Commission and the Kenyan Diaspora in South Africa (KEDASA) estimate the broader population — including students, researchers, and short-term travellers — at around 40,000.

Kenya joins a growing list of African nations organising evacuations, alongside Nigeria, Ghana, Malawi, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. South Africa’s Inter-Ministerial Committee on Migration has meanwhile warned that vigilante groups taking the law into their own hands face prosecution, and that blocking foreign nationals from accessing public services is a criminal offence.

In a separate and diplomatically sensitive development, Somalia’s Deputy Prime Minister Jibril Abdirashid Haji was deported from Jomo Kenyatta International Airport after Kenyan immigration officials suspected he was carrying a fraudulently obtained Kenyan passport in addition to his valid Somali diplomatic travel documents. Haji reportedly declined to surrender the Kenyan document for verification. He was detained overnight at JKIA before being returned to Mogadishu — a development that drew attention given its timing, coming days after Presidents Ruto and Hassan Sheikh Mohamud held bilateral talks reaffirming Kenya-Somalia ties.

Neither government had issued a detailed public statement by the time of publication

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