Regional integration on trial as DRC doctors fight for permits in Kenya

Congolese doctors represented by lawyer Danstan Omari sue Health Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale over license row at Milimani Courts, Nairobi on January 12 /LEAH MUKANGAI

A legal battle where Congolese doctors working in Kenya have sued Health CS, Aden Duale, for refusing to renew their work permits has exposed limitations of East Africa’s common market protocol.

In an application filed on Monday, January 12, under a certificate of urgency by lawyer Danstan Omari, the doctors have termed the move by the Ministry as arbitrary and discriminatory.

Omari argues that the doctors were members of the East African community, yet they were denied license renewal even after Duale reaffirmed that members of the EAC would not be affected by the move to ban foreign doctors.

“He is very categorical that all doctors from the East African community will be offered employment. That statement is not true. Congolese doctors have not been allowed to renew their licences,” Omari stated.

On Tuesday, regional trade experts faulted the Ministry of Health for what they termed as ‘open bias’ against bona fide members of EAC, contradicting Kenya’s efforts to push for regional integration.

“The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is a member of EAC, with its citizens entitled to benefits enshrined in the common market protocol. Those doctors deserve permits to work in Kenya as long as they meet regulatory approvals,’’ Dave Ndegwa, Pan African trade crusader, told the Star.

He added that the move by CS Duale pours cold water on Kenya’s commitment to the free labour movement within the region after unveiling Class R permits early last year.

Signed in 2009, the common market protocol agreement between member states sought to remove barriers to the mobility of people, capital and other resources, creating a single market where all factors of production move freely within the region.

Even so, Jerome Omondi, a former adviser at the East Africa Business Community (EABC), says that DRC and Somalia are late to the party.

“The last time I checked, Kenya’s Class R Permit for citizens of EAC partner states is limited to Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, and South Sudan. Let us wait for judicial interpretation,’’ he said. 

Although Kenya and DRC have had perennial diplomatic spats, the two countries are major trade partners, especially after they both became members of EAC.

The investment profile, 2025, by the Kenya Investment Authority (KenInvest) and Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) shows that Kenyan investors injected at least Sh100 billion into DRC in 2022, the year the country joined the EAC bloc.

Even so, in 2023, DRC recalled its Ambassadors to Kenya and Tanzania, accusing Nairobi of interfering with its internal affairs.

Kinshasa was furious that Kenya had hosted a Congolese opposition figure who allied with rebels in the country’s capital.

The envoy to Tanzania was recalled because Tanzania hosts the headquarters of the East African Community bloc, to which the DRC also belongs.

The two nations have since mended ties, with Kenyan businesses reporting huge profits in the country, led by the banking sector. According to the financial results for KCB and Equity Bank, Kenya’s leading lenders, DRC subsidiaries contributed heavily to their profitability in the first nine months of 2025.

In 2022, KCB acquired a controlling stake in the DRC-based lender TMB, while Equity Bank had earlier acquired a shareholding in Banque Commerciale du Congo (BCDC) from the family of businessman George Arthur Forrest and merged it with Equity Bank Congo (EBC) to form a new bank, Equity BCDC.

According to KCB’s financial results, its subsidiary in DRC accounts for almost half of its earnings away of Kenya.

Equity Bank’s Profit after Tax in DRC increased by 21 per cent to Sh13.8 billion, up from Sh11.4 billion in Q3, 2025.

Loans and advances increased by 19 percent to Sh302.7 billion, up from Sh253.5 billion, while cash holdings declined by a corresponding amount from Sh275 billion to Sh259.3 billion.

Total equity rose by 28per cent to Sh88.8 billion, up from Sh69.4 billion.

The East Africa Community Secretariat has blamed the lack of harmonisation of mutual recognition of professionals, failure to abolish work permits and implement the EAC trade dispute remedies as stumbling blocks to regional integration.

Others are: liberalisation of air transport services, harmonisation of domestic taxes, and elimination of long-standing non-tariff barriers. 

Last year, the Kenyan government protested to the EAC Secretariat after Tanzania banned non-citizens from engaging in various business activities, warning that the move threatened economic integration. 

Kenya asked the regional trading body to compel Tanzania to review the Business Licensing (Prohibition of Business Activities for Non-Citizens) Order, 2025.

The order restricted foreigners from engaging in 15 categories of business, imposing hefty penalties, including fines of no less than TSh10 million (Sh501 584), imprisonment for up to six months, and cancellation of visas and residency permits.