K- Immigration

I first looked into the idea of getting a work permit in December. Now it’s July and i’ve just given up. The first shock was that as a ‘volunteer’ I had to pay £750 a year to the Immigration Board so I had to find a way to do that. Then I had to be endorsed  by my organisation – in my case since XP is not yet registered SV**CO – which entailed filling out about ten forms. The most important thing for me though was an endorsement letter from the NGO board saying that I should be granted an entry permit this required thirteen pieces of paperwork, including a copy of my ‘contract’ as a volunteer. The NGO board only assesses these applications once a month so it was April before the letter came out with a positive endorsement.

In April I submitted my application for a work permit at the Immigration Department, in Nyayo House. This intimidating building has legendary status as the venue for the torture of Raila Odinga during the Moi regime, and the echoing stairwells make it easy to imagine the screams coming from the basement. I don’t think it has been swept since Moi was president either and apparently it did once have water running in the toilets during those days. The officials stamped my passport giving me three more months to process the payment and wait for the final approval from the board. Three months is designed to be excessive but of course on July 7^th I had to have it extended for another month because of delays.

On the day I submitted my application I was the last customer in the building (very eerie) and aisle 9 closed without giving me a reference number. This would be a source of consternation for me as each time I returned to check on the progress of my application (twice) I was told that I must have a reference number, and if I didn’t I was a liar, and Kenya doesn’t like liars.

The day I picked up my approval (without a reference number(, I was told that all I needed to do was pay my 100,000 KES (£750) along with a bank bond from my bank for the same amount (first time I’d heard about that – what is a bank bond anyway?)

In the bank I was told that a bank bond will take two weeks to process and I also needed a form 19 from Immigration. It was already 4pm so I thought  I would return the next day to get form 19.

Guess what the next day was the day they decided to implement the new constitution which constituted that the new fee was not £750 but £1500. ‘But I was here yesterday, no-one told me the charges were about to double’ – ‘Oh sorry about that, but don’t worry your permit was approved before the changes so you probably won’t have to pay’ – ‘Are you sure?’ – ‘Um you go to room 24/15/18/27 and check with them’. In room 27 they told me they would be sure by next Monday.

So next Tuesday (today) I went back and this time went to rooms 18/28/24 and a room without a number (definitely the torture chamber) but still I was refused an answer. In the end it was the cashier in aisle 9 who told me that I would ABSOLUTELY have to pay the new price and that if I couldn’t afford it it’s OK I just have to give up and go back to UK.

Luckily I’m going home anyway but I have a feeling that my relationship with Nyayo house is only just beginning.