Work Permitted

What has 2 thumbs and is now legally entitled to work in Kenya?

Barely 11 and a half months into my time here (out of 15 in total), my work permit application has finally been both authorised and endorsed (apparently, these are different). It wasn't easy. Today alone, I have spent approximately 6 hours in the immigration department, and seen 7 different people. All of whom were surprisingly helpful.

The killer is the forms. Kenyans love forms. And they all have to be filled in by hand. Normally many times over. I have filled in a form explaining why a Kenyan couldn't be found to do my job instead, a form listing every country I've ever visited in my life and why, and my particular favourite, a form to be completed in quadruplicate, giving them the names of all my Headmasters from school. I'm sure this information must be invaluable to someone.

A friend of mine was recently applying for an entry pass to a government building she visited regularly for work. The form required her to name every American person she knew, with their contact details. She explained that having been born in the US, brought up there, and gone to school there, she probably knew a few hundred Americans.

"Do you understand the problem?" she asked.

"Ah yes", the official replied, "you are going to need some more paper". And he came back with some blank sheets for her. In the end, she named 5 people and handed in the form to the same official, who accepted it without question.

I don't know where all these forms go. Somewhere in the Department of Immigration there must be a stack of files containing multiple photocopies of my passport, ID, degree certificates, various permits and passes. It's a ridiculously complicated system, that can only possibly be designed with the explicit purpose of deterring foreigners from coming to the country. I had vaguely thought that, because I was doing it through the government, we might be able to fast-track the application, take it through some back channels, or something. Turns out it's the other way round. Because we're going through the government, everything has to be 100% by the book. And that book was written in the 1960s. First it needs to be approved by my Ministry, then Ministry of Finance have to have their say, because, Ministry of Finance always have to have their say, before the Immigration Department will even look at the application.

But I think I've almost got the hang of it now, which is lucky, because we're about to go through the whole process again with my replacement, who arrived last week.