Sometime in 2024, I joined a group of like-minded sufferers wishing to hike up to some point of Mt. Meru, a dormant volcano located in Arusha National Park. We had called a renowned mountain slayer to curate the hike for us, an indomitable Kenyan lady who has curated hikes for adventurous Kenyans from the thickets of Makueni to the craggy peaks of Mont Blanc in Switzerland up until the 15th-century architectural wonder of Machu Picchu in Peru. When we showed up to the departure point in Nairobi, we found a Tanzanian-registered Coaster bus with a very pleasant Tanzanian driver ready to drive us to Arusha. Why, we asked the mountain slayer, when there are thousands of Kenyan transport options? It turns out that for years the Tanzanians have been very protectionist over their tourism sites, not wanting Kenyan drivers or tour vehicles accessing their national parks when there were local service providers that could do the job just as well.

And indeed, upon reaching Arusha I was impressed with the tourism infrastructure that the Tanzanians have provided having had decades of political stability and minimal terrorism attacks, a key and basic parameter for steady tourism income. Compared to Mt Kenya and Mt Elgon, we cannot hold a candle, let alone a matchstick to the world class washroom and accommodation facilities at Arusha National Park for Mt Meru climbers. I am told that the Mt. Kilimanjaro facilities are also quite good. Arusha is a bustling transit city for tourists on the Serengeti/Ngorongoro wildlife circuit and those climbing Mt Meru and Mt. Kilimanjaro thus one can see why the Tanzanians would want to ensure that Kenyan tour transportation has zero access to the lucrative foreign currency flowing through their taps.

The tourism protectionist gate valve has worked so well that last month the Tanzanian Minister for Trade and Industry received an epiphany on the road to “Business Damascus”. Having woken up on the “It’s going to be a good day for my TZ peeps” side of his bed one July morning, Dr. Selemani Saidi Jafo gazed warily at the circle around the October 28^th 2025 date on his bedside calendar. The national election date loomed closer and this was a good time to throw pre-election crumbs to the natives. Why not issue a ban on non-citizens’ participation in 15 business activities? Those confounded foreigners have fed from the business trough for too long and it’s time to stop the madness.

As he sat back left in the government-issued sedan on the way to the Ministry offices, the Minister applied 2 minutes of grave thought to the East African Community (EAC) values of free trade before tossing the thoughts out the window at the first traffic light stop. “Watalalamika, watanyamaza” he surmised.

Through a gazette notice issued on July 25^th 2025, foreigners have been banned from undertaking 15 business activities in Tanzania. The political fallout with their EAC brothers was viewed to be a smaller headache than the nationalistic pride and unassailable opportunities provided to Tanzanian entrepreneurs. The Tanzanians have proved over and over that they can whip up intense internal nationalistic fervour to shut out external noise, particularly during critical existential moments like an election year. The notice provides a fine of TShs 10 million or imprisonment for 6 months plus a revocation of visa and resident permit for a non-resident carrying out one of the specified businesses. And because the Tanzanian government knows how foreign entrepreneurs operate insidiously within their borders, the gazette notice goes further to add that if a Tanzanian citizen provides assistance to a non-citizen to do the same businesses, they will also be liable to pay a fine of Tshs 5 million of imprisonment of 3 months. But what if a non-resident is already doing the business? Well, they can continue until their licence runs out following which they are expected to head to the nearest border exit point faster than you can say “Gerrarahia!”

The paradox in this whole untidy mess is that there are thousands of Tanzanians, Ugandans, South Sudanese, Rwandans and Burundians doing business in Kenya and no one pays them any mind. They are in the same business activities that have been highlighted by the Dodoma gazette notice. They pay rent to Kenyan landlords, buy Kenyan goods and services and generally compete for business opportunities as the founders of the EAC envisioned. There’s nothing like a good Tanzanian slap on the Kenyan face to rally rare joint umbrage by the political and business constituencies. While we all get our knickers in a bunch, expect tone deafness from our neighbors with an election date less than 3 months away. Tanzania is closed for renovations for now, please come back in 2026.

X: @carolmusyoka

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