By Joshua Cheloti

The government has secured an agreement with the Bahamas that will see Kenyans travel to the North American country without the need for a visa.

According to Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary Dr Alfred Mutua, the agreement will take effect as early as May 2023.

In a tweet on his official handle after meeting his Bahamas counterpart, Dr Mutua said the visa-free travel is part of the Kenya Kwanza government’s effort to increase and encourage trade between Kenya and the Bahamas.

“With Hon. @FredMitchell242, Minister of Foreign Affairs & the Public Service of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, we agreed on commencement of a free visa regime between Kenya & Bahamas – by the first week of May ’23 – so as to increase & encourage trade & commercial relations between us,” the CS said in one of the tweets posted on March 17, 2023.

Dr Mutua sealed the deal during a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the ongoing Commonwealth Foreign Affairs Ministers’ meeting.

During the meeting, the Foreign Affairs CS said he also appealed to the Bahamas to consider recruitment and employment of Kenyans in the Bahamian seafarer sectors and related service industries as well as the Bahamian healthcare system.

“On matters of regional peace and security, we agreed on the need for concerted peace efforts in Haiti, noting that the eventual stability and prosperity of Haiti would not only be beneficial to her neighbours and the region, but would also be good for global peace and security,” Dr Mutua said.

The Bahamas, officially known as the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the West Indies in the North Atlantic.

It takes up 97 per cent of the Lucayan Archipelago’s land area and is home to 88 per cent of the archipelago’s population.