From March to April, as every year, dozens of Italians who spend the European winter in warm and cosy Kenya will leave their 'second home' and return, more or less happily, to the Motherland.
This year, to the famous 'Africa-sickness', at the moment of departure from Mombasa or Nairobi, will be added the anxiety connected to the stamp on the passport regarding the extension after the first three months of stay in the African country.
To explain why, it is necessary to jump back a few months in the chronicle of what happened in Kenya.

In the autumn of 2023, the government, among the many reforms announced to streamline bureaucracy, limit corruption, and above all recover finances through increases and new taxes, proposed some changes in immigration fees and modalities.
Changes that affect both Kenyan citizens, for the issuance of their documents starting with their passports, and foreigners, resident and non-resident.
Specifically, for tourists, the reform of tourist residence permits linked to the entry visa, the obtaining of which was changed on 1 January. In fact, the visa is no longer applied for online but stamped at the airport, after presentation of the electronic travel authorisation (eTA), which must be made and obtained online before departure.
According to some, this changes little. In reality, the visa at the airport, even if it is valid for a maximum of 90 days, can be stamped with the expiry date relative to the return ticket issued.

Apart from this, the reform would provide that one would go back to paying the extension after the first three months for another three (100 dollars) but also that one could further extend the stay after six months at a cost of another 200 dollars. This too is to avoid the corruption of those who have been obtaining the extension 'by the back door' for years anyway.

In any case, after its publication in the Kenyan Official Gazette on 6 October, the High Court in Nairobi upheld an appeal by civil society and suspended the reform and all the changes contained in it, which also provide for exponential and unreasonable increases in work and residence permits, dependent passes and others with higher fees of up to 150%.
The hearing to discuss the unconstitutionality of the reform was scheduled for 15 February, but seems to have been postponed.

During this period, it is unclear whether coinciding with this climate of indecision or due to a technological coincidence, the online immigration eFNS site has practically been down for most of the time, and those who have tried to apply for the 3-month extension online (as would be mandatory, as well as being free of charge until now) have been unable to do so.
As a result, he was headed for visa expiry and the danger of being 'clandestine', i.e. staying in Kenya illegally.
The only thing to do was to go to the nearest Immigration office and ask for information to get the 'manual' extension. So it was for everyone, of course. Often with the payment of a tip 'for the service'.
The question has arisen for many readers who have written to us: on exit, will that stamp be valid or will the authorities want to see the extension online?

The answer we were given by the central immigration office in Nairobi is this: the important thing is to have made the online application (in the sense of having attempted to make it) before the 3-month deadline and to have printed out the proof. Your application is probably still 'on pending', so it was never processed. But you can print your request, or download it to your smartphone anyway.
There, with that proof of 'having tried' you will avoid any problems on the way out. Otherwise, it might be OK anyway, but the little anxiety of not having everything in order would remain.
That anxiety that often becomes a TIK.
An acronym for This Is Kenya...