Kenya’s investment promotion agency is exploring a residency-by-investment program that would grant permanent residency to foreign investors, reviving an idea first floated in 2019 that never became law.
The Kenya Investment Authority, known as Invest Kenya, has set no investment threshold, named no qualifying sectors, and holds no drafting power over the immigration rules such a program would need.
John Mwendwa, the authority’s chief executive since January 2025, described the plan as exploratory in an interview with Business Daily. “We are exploring residency by investment,” he said, calling it the direction investors would prefer.
Any program would require legislation, because immigration policy sits outside Invest Kenya’s remit, Mwendwa said. He cautioned against naming numbers prematurely, noting that thresholds and qualifying sectors remain undecided and that such calls may fall to bodies beyond his agency.
Kenya’s investment authority first raised the idea in 2019, when Moses Ikiara, who then led the agency, argued that high-impact investors deserved non-monetary incentives alongside tax breaks. That version leaned toward citizenship; the current one speaks only of residency. Talks with the Interior ministry never advanced, despite officials citing safeguards against potential abuse.
The existing route
Foreign investors currently use the Class G Investor Permit, which requires a minimum US$100,000 investment in an active Kenyan enterprise. Holders must keep the permit for seven years before applying for citizenship by registration, a route that also demands three years of continuous residence beforehand, according to Business Daily.
A permanent-residency track would spare investors the repeated renewals and annual charges that come with work permits. That, Invest Kenya argues, would make long-term commercial ties to the country easier to sustain.
Where the program would stand
The revival lands as governments increasingly pair residency rights with tax incentives to keep mobile capital in place. Kenya drew an estimated US$3.2 billion in foreign direct investment in 2025, a record, with inflows up 37.7 percent year on year, according to UNCTAD figures cited by Business Daily.
Nairobi would join African peers that already court investors with residency rights. Ethiopia just announced a new ten-year golden visa, South Africa and Mauritius both run investor-residency routes, and a survey of the continent’s active programs shows where a Kenyan version would sit.
What exists today is a direction, not a document. Invest Kenya has published no formal proposal, and no bill has reached Parliament. Thresholds and timing remain blank.
