President Kenyatta Calls for Free Movement of Africans Across Continent

President Uhuru Kenyatta

Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta has called upon African governments to allow free movement of Africans all across the continent.

President Kenyatta made the remark during an official visit to Addis Ababa, where he met with Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and President Sahle-Work Zewde.

“There is need for our people to be allowed to travel throughout the African continent freely without any hindrances, since we are all brothers and sisters with a common heritage as Africans,” Kenyatta said.

African governments are still deliberating on how best to implement a proposed roll-out of an African passport, which would allow Africans to move across the continent without any hindrances.

The Pan-African passport was launched in July 2016, at the opening ceremony of the 27th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of the AU, in Kigali. Chadian President and then Chairperson of the AU, Idriss Deby, and his Rwandan counterpart Paul Kagame received the first passports from the then Chairperson of the AU Commission, Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma.

Earlier this year, the AU said it would provide details of the production and issuance of the African passport, which would be used by the continent’s over 1.2 billion people.

Other than supporting the removal of boundaries across Africa, President Kenyatta has also in the past called for the removal of passport requirements for travel by East Africans across the region, saying it would open up the region economically.

The Kenyan leader’s visit to Ethiopia is his second this year, having attended the 32nd AU Heads of State and Governments Summit in Addis Ababa in early February.