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00:00 During a speech months ago, Kenya's president said Kenya has a simple message to the world,
00:04 "Welcome home", meaning that Kenya will be a visa-free country for every traveller
00:09 starting on the 1st of January 2024. It was not a big surprise because Kenya's president
00:14 had been advocating for a visa-free Africa, at least for Africans, for a long time now. So Kenya
00:20 is now officially visa-free, but it does not mean that every traveller can just board a plane and
00:25 travel to Kenya without any documents. They still have to apply for an ETA, an electronic travel
00:30 authorization, at least 72 hours prior to departure. To do so, they have to fill an online form, they
00:38 have to give a lot of personal information, they have to provide their travel itinerary,
00:43 and depending on their country of origin, they might have to provide a bank statement. Before
00:49 the 1st of January, many travellers from African countries could travel to Kenya without a visa.
00:55 They now have to apply for an ETA, which is costly. Officially it's $30, but you have to pay for
01:02 processing fees and bank fees in addition, so in total it's around $35. Before the 1st of January,
01:09 children could travel to Kenya without a visa. They now have to pay for the ETA as well. So for
01:16 many people, Kenya is not visa-free at all, it's just a visa by another name.