KENYA SOCIALIST DEMOCRATIC ALLIANCE (KSDA)
June 8th 2004
Mr Henry Ole Ndiema
Principal
Immigration Officer,
Office of the Vice
President
Jogoo House, "A" Taifa Road
P.O. Box 30520, Nairobi
Kenya
Tel. 228411
AN INTERNATIONAL APPEAL FOR HELP TO
OBTAIN A KENYAN PASSPORT
My name is Okoth Osewe and I am a Kenyan
citizen by birth. For the last 12 years, I have been exiled in Sweden where I have been politically active in
different groups and organizations that, until December 2002, had been waging
struggle against the Dictatorship of former President Daniel arap Moi and his KANU Party. I
have mainly been active in the Kenya Human Rights Organization in Sweden (KHEROS), Kenya Youth Movement in Sweden (KYMS), the Kenya People’s Democratic Movement (KEPEDEMO – Mapinduzi) and the Kenya Asylum Committee (KAC). I have also been
active in several political organizations in Sweden and published articles in different
political publications both in Sweden and abroad.
Currently, I am the Secretary of the Kenya Socialist Democratic
Alliance (KSDA), an Alliance which
made significant contributions to the defeat of the Dictatorship of former
President Daniel arap Moi
and which continues to oppose the rotten system of capitalism in Kenya.
We linked up with Kenyans at home and abroad to co-ordinate the anti-Moi struggle and worked with International organizations to
exert pressure on Moi to quit or to allow for more
democratization of our country.
When he was still leader of official opposition in Kenya, we
hosted President Mwai Kibaki
in Stockholm as part of the anti-Moi struggle, linked
up with politicians like Professor Anyang Nyongo (Now Minister of Planning) in Stockholm to scheme
the defeat of Moi and organized meetings with
politicians like Mr. Raila Odinga
(now Minister of Roads, Housing and Public works) to pool ideas on how the rule
of the murderous KANU government could be brought to an end.
We organized numerous demonstrations and pickets outside the
Kenyan Embassy in Stockholm to call
for the release of political prisoners like Koigi wa Wamwere
(now an MP) and to strategize against an autocratic regime that was not just
slaughtering innocent Kenyans but that was also looting the country’s economy
as the masses of the people continued to suffer. Some politicians we worked
with in exile like former Chairman of KEHROS Mr. Mwandawiro
Mghanga (now MP for Wundanyi)
are in a position to elongate on the protracted anti-Moi/KANU
struggle here in Sweden.
When KANU was eventually defeated in December 2002, Kenyans
celebrated, not just because the government of a ruthless dictator had been
vanquished but because the defeat of the regime also signaled an end to life in
exile for Kenyans who had fled the country for political reasons. At a personal
level, I looked forward to returning home as soon as possible to reconnect with
other Kenyans to celebrate the Narc take over and to
experience the ushering of
what President Mwai Kibaki
referred to as “A new era”. We were told by the new President Kibaki to return home and to help in building our
devastated country.
More than sixteen months after Narc
took power in Kenya,
I am still unable to travel to Kenya
because the government has refused to issue me with a Kenyan passport. When I first
met officials at the Kenyan Embassy in Stockholm early last year to get a
briefing on how I could obtain my passport, I was shocked when I was told that
I could not be issued with a Kenyan passport because I was a holder of a United
Nations passport that was issued to me under the 1957 Geneva convention.
Although this passport is valid for travel in all countries, it is not valid
for travel to Kenya
because it was issued on condition that the Moi
dictatorship could not provide me with a passport.
When I sought further clarification from the Embassy, I was
informed that if I wanted a Kenyan passport, I had to travel to Kenya
and make an application while in the country. Further, I was advised that the
maximum the Embassy could do was to issue me with a piece of paper that would
enable me to make a one way trip to Kenya
so that I could present my application upon arrival in Nairobi.
This process, I was told, could take several months depending on how the
government viewed the application. The paper the Embassy was referring to is
called a “Travel certificate” that is normally issued to deportees who enter
other countries without travel documents.
I refused to accept to travel to Kenya
with a piece of paper because I am not a deportee being repatriated to Kenya
by Swedish immigration police. I argued that I had a right to a valid passport
under the laws of Kenya
to enable me exercise my freedom of Movement. I took the position that Kenyans
had just installed a new government after 24 years of ruthless Dictatorship by
the Moi/KANU regime and encouraged the new government
not to follow the KANU path of denying Kenyans passports using hopeless
reasons. I pointed out that as an active member of the Kenya
exile community in Sweden,
I was part of those who contributed to the defeat of the Moi
dictatorship and reminded the Embassy that I considered my life in exile over
with the Narc take-over. Although Embassy staff were
sympathetic and friendly, I realized that there was little they could do as
they had their bosses in Nairobi.
By June last year, I was still doing battle with the
government, not to issue me with a passport but to allow me to present an
application from Stockholm to the Immigration office in Nairobi. Because of my
inability to obtain a Kenyan passport, I missed a major trip to Kenya in August
last year where I was to be part of a Kenyan delegation from Stockholm that was
scheduled to argue the case for dual citizenship at the Constitutional Review
Conference that was, by then, sitting at Bomas of
Kenya. Circumstances that led to my failure to travel were published in KUWA
Bulletin (September 2003), a Kenyan Newsletter published in Sweden.
Pastor Beatrice Kamau, the Chairperson of Kenya
United Welfare Association (KUWA), did manage to attend the meeting together
with other delegates. After August, I renewed contacts with the Embassy to
continue with the campaign for me to present an application. It was not until
early this year that the Embassy allowed me to present an application.
After accepting my application, the problem now is that the
government has decided to sit on the application. The Kenyan Embassy does not
have any information about the application and the advice I have so far
obtained from the Embassy is that I should continue waiting. Several contacts
with the Immigration office in Nairobi
have failed to yield results. The closest I have come to getting attention from
a State official is when I was advised by a Clerk at the Office of Immigration
that I talk to the Chief Immigration Officer whom I have been unable to reach
because of red tape.
Traditionally, the defeated KANU autocracy denied Kenyans
passports to block them from traveling abroad fearing that such trips could
boost opposition in exile at a time when the government had a pathological fear
for Kenyan dissidents. Does the new Narc government
have any valid reason to deny a Passport to a Kenyan citizen who helped Narc come to power and who has made enormous sacrifices in
exile? I have decided to go public with my problem and to seek help from both
Kenyans and the international community as a last resort.
By denying me a passport, what Narc
is doing is that it is employing the same tactics that were employed by the
dictatorship of former President Daniel arap Moi who denied or confiscated passports from Kenyans to
curtail their right to freedom of Movement for political reasons. At a time
when the Narc government is failing in many areas, it
is unfortunate that my desire to return to Kenya
is being frustrated by the very government that promised change and
transformation. Kenyans were told that everything was possible without Moi. Now, even issuing a basic document
like a passport to a Kenyan seeking to travel home after 12 years in exile has
become impossible.
The position of the government over the issue is an
indication that Kenya
is slowly returning to the days of the KANU dictatorship. Since Narc took power, Kenyans have witnessed the political
assassination of Professor Odhiambo Mbai, corruption in the government, open cheating by
President Kibaki especially on the issue of the
delivery of a new Constitution, appointment of public servants along ethnic
lines, muzzling of the press especially the alternative media, looting of the
economy by MPs, disruption of political rallies in different parts of the
country, begging from IMF and World Bank, shooting of civilians in the streets
by police, formation of Commissions and Task Forces to cover up short comings
in the government and failure of the government to bring criminals from the
former Moi regime to book.
I have met all conditions and provided all the relevant
documents for a Kenyan passport application. Because I cannot continue waiting
indefinitely, I wish to appeal to both the Kenyan and the International
community to help me exert pressure on the emerging Kibaki
dictatorship to issue me with a valid Kenyan passport so that I can travel to
my country.
I have been waging the struggle for a passport quietly with
the illusion that those frustrating my application may have been remnants of
the KANU dictatorship on their way out of the government. But, as the waiting
becomes endless, I have moved to the position that the frustration of my
application may be an organized exercise supervised by the government. In the
circumstances, I have decided to seek help from those who are in a position to
understand the issue. I am appealing to those reading this petition to sign it
and to do anything in their power to put more pressure on the Kenyan government
to issue me with a passport so that I can travel home.
Mr. Okoth Osewe
Secretary
Kenya
Socialist Democratic Alliance
(KSDA)
Tel: ++46736533068
osewe@chello.se
osewe@hotmail.com
Website:
http://www.kenyasocialist.org
Published by Kenya
Socialist Democratic Alliance (KSDA)
email: harakatips@hotmail.com
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