President William Ruto has ordered a major national crackdown on foreign nationals operating small businesses across Kenya, setting Monday, September 7, as the deadline for state agencies to enforce shut-downs.
Addressing Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprise (MSME) traders at State House on Wednesday, September 2, the Head of State insisted that the government must reserve small-scale trade and informal retail exclusively for Kenyan citizens.
Ruto instructed law enforcement and trade officials to initiate compliance operations next week, taking direct aim at foreign nationals who venture into micro-retail.
“From next week, all traders doing those small businesses should close them,” Ruto told the gathering.
The president stressed that while government economic reforms aim to attract major international capital, foreign investors should not displace local micro-entrepreneurs in neighborhood markets and urban centers.
“We have made efforts to improve the economy… We have not improved investor confidence for hawkers to come to Kenya,” Ruto said. He maintained that Kenya must establish clear boundaries to safeguard small traders from external competition.
“It cannot be that a person comes from China or elsewhere to be a hawker or open a small shop,” he added.
To permanently shield local markets, President Ruto directed National Assembly Majority Leader Kimani Ichung’wah and Trade Cabinet Secretary Lee Kinyanjui to expedite the passage of the Local Content Bill, 2025.
The proposed legislation seeks to create a statutory framework that explicitly bars foreign nationals from entering designated informal and small-scale business sectors.
“We have a bill in Parliament on trade. In that bill (Local Content Bill, 2025), we have proposed that there should be businesses that foreigners should not do here in Kenya, by law,” Ruto explained to the traders.
The Local Content Bill, 2025, introduces stringent local participation thresholds across multiple economic sectors:
The aggressive policy is aimed at protecting domestic entrepreneurs as Parliament moves to fast-track the protective legislation.
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