Kenyan Drivers Cannot Be Treated Like Disposable Labour Abroad While Nairobi Keeps Silent

There is a painful question Kenya must now confront without fear, without hypocrisy, and without political cowardice: why are Kenyan long-distance drivers being exposed to danger, harassment, extortion, humiliation and even death on foreign roads, while the Kenyan government responds with the softness of a state that has forgotten the value of its own citizens?

This is not a call for hatred against citizens of the Democratic Republic of Congo or South Sudan. Ordinary Congolese and South Sudanese people living in Kenya must never be attacked, threatened or blamed collectively for the failures of armed groups, rogue security officers, criminal networks or weak governments in their home countries. Kenya is not a jungle. Kenya is a constitutional state. Foreign nationals living here must be protected under the law.

But that same law, that same dignity, that same protection must also follow Kenyans beyond our borders.

The Kenyan truck driver is not a tourist. He is not crossing borders for leisure. He is the engine of regional trade. He moves fuel, food, construction materials, medical supplies, industrial goods and humanitarian cargo across East and Central Africa. When governments sign trade agreements, it is the driver who makes those agreements real. When ports clear cargo, it is the driver who carries the economy on his back. When regional presidents praise integration, it is the driver who risks the road, the checkpoint, the militia, the bribe-demanding officer and the insecure highway.

Yet today, Kenyan drivers are asking a question that should shame Nairobi: who protects us?

The killing of Kenyan truck driver Edwin Njuguna in Bunia, eastern DRC, has again exposed the dangerous reality facing Kenyan transport workers on regional routes. Reports say long-distance drivers have called for urgent government intervention, warning that insecurity on the eastern DRC corridor is becoming unbearable. The Long-Distance Drivers and Conductors Association has also warned that continued failure to protect drivers could lead to suspension of operations on risky routes.

This is not an isolated cry. Kenyan drivers have for years complained of attacks, extortion and insecurity in South Sudan and DRC. In South Sudan, previous reports linked insecurity on the Northern Corridor to killings and injuries of foreign drivers, with Kenyan drivers among those affected. In 2021, two Kenyan drivers were reportedly shot dead near Nesitu, triggering a major strike by truck drivers transporting cargo to South Sudan.

So the issue is no longer whether Kenyan drivers are facing danger. The issue is whether the Kenyan state has decided that their lives are cheaper than diplomatic comfort.

Kenya cannot continue behaving like a regional supermarket where everyone is welcomed, protected and allowed to trade freely, while Kenyans abroad are left to beg for safety. Reciprocity is not xenophobia. Demanding respect for Kenyan citizens is not hatred. Asking foreign governments to protect Kenyans is not hostility. It is basic statecraft.

A serious government would summon ambassadors. A serious government would issue formal diplomatic protests. A serious government would demand investigations, arrests, compensation for affected families and enforceable security guarantees. A serious government would not wait for drivers to threaten route shutdowns before remembering that these men and women exist.

The silence from Nairobi is dangerous because it sends a message. It tells criminals abroad that Kenyan lives can be taken without consequence. It tells rogue officers that Kenyan drivers can be harassed without accountability. It tells transporters that profit matters more than safety. It tells grieving families that their sons are useful when they are alive but forgotten when they die.

That is unacceptable.

Kenya has opened its doors to citizens from across the region. South Sudanese, Congolese, Ugandans, Tanzanians, Rwandans and others live, work, study, invest and do business here. Many are peaceful, hardworking people who contribute to the economy. They deserve dignity. But Kenya must stop confusing hospitality with weakness. A nation can be welcoming and still be firm. A nation can host foreigners humanely and still demand that its citizens are treated humanely abroad.

The Kenyan government must now make one thing clear: no Kenyan driver should be killed, extorted, detained, abandoned or abused in another country without consequences.

This is where the Ministry of Foreign and Diaspora Affairs must wake up. The ministry cannot only appear during high-profile foreign trips, polished summits and diplomatic photo opportunities. Diplomacy is not just about presidents shaking hands. Diplomacy is about protecting the ordinary citizen whose passport carries the name Kenya. A driver stuck in Bunia, Juba or on a dangerous corridor deserves the same urgency as a politician stranded in a foreign capital.

The Ministry of Transport must also stop pretending this is not its problem. Cross-border trucking is part of Kenya’s logistics economy. If routes are unsafe, supply chains are unsafe. If drivers withdraw services, trade suffers. If transporters are forced to pay illegal fees and protection money, those costs return to Kenyan consumers. In the end, insecurity on foreign roads becomes inflation inside Kenyan homes.

Employers and transport companies must also be held to account. It is immoral to send drivers into known danger zones without proper security protocols, insurance, emergency response systems, satellite tracking, legal support and evacuation plans. A driver is not a machine. He is a worker, a parent, a spouse, a taxpayer and a citizen. His life cannot be reduced to delivery schedules and profit margins.

Kenya also needs a regional driver protection framework. If DRC and South Sudan are part of the regional trade architecture, then safety guarantees must be part of that architecture. Trade corridors cannot only be about cargo movement. They must include secure parking zones, verified escort systems in high-risk areas, emergency hotlines, joint security command desks, compensation mechanisms and rapid diplomatic response when drivers are attacked.

The East African Community must also be challenged. What is the meaning of regional integration if Kenyan drivers can carry goods into partner states but cannot be guaranteed safe passage? What is the point of expanding the EAC if the people who physically connect the region are left exposed to militias, criminals and rogue officers? Integration without protection is exploitation.

Kenya’s Parliament should summon the relevant ministries and demand answers. How many Kenyan drivers have been killed, injured, extorted or detained in DRC and South Sudan in the last five years? How many families have been compensated? How many diplomatic protests has Kenya filed? How many suspects have been arrested? What security agreements exist for Kenyan transporters? What emergency response protocol is active today?

These questions must be answered publicly.

The tragedy is that Kenyan drivers are often invisible until they die. They are celebrated when goods arrive, cursed when prices rise, ignored when they complain and mourned briefly when their bodies return home. That cycle must end. The life of a Kenyan driver must matter before he becomes a headline.

And this is where Kenyans must be careful but firm. Our anger should not be directed at innocent Congolese or South Sudanese people living in Kenya. Mob thinking is lazy. Collective blame is dangerous. The real target of national anger should be weak diplomacy, failed protection systems, rogue actors, criminal networks and governments that fail to secure trade corridors.

Kenya must be civilized, but it must not be soft. Kenya must be humane, but it must not be foolish. Kenya must protect foreigners within its borders, but it must also demand protection for Kenyans beyond its borders.

The question, therefore, is not why foreigners live well in Kenya. The question is why the Kenyan government has not made it costly for any country, militia, officer or criminal network to mistreat Kenyan citizens abroad.

A passport is supposed to mean something. Citizenship is supposed to mean something. A Kenyan driver crossing into DRC or South Sudan should know that behind him stands a state, not a silence.

Until Nairobi acts, the message to Kenyan drivers is brutal: carry the region’s economy, risk your life, and when trouble comes, pray louder than your government speaks.

That is not leadership. That is abandonment.

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