Nigerians resident in Kenya now live in fear as they do not know who will be the next victim following raids by state security agents believed to have been driven by xenophobia.
Nigerians are hunted daily and the unfortunate ones who are not able to escape arrest are thrown into police custody, charged to court and deported. Yesterday, six Nigerians were deported from Jomo Kenyatta International Airport.
They include Anthony Chinedu, and Adebisi Oluwatosin Fatai. According to a source that preferred anonymity, this ugly trend has been on for some years now without signs of ending.
The process of deporting Nigerians takes matter of hours, as the police seem to be working with court officials.
Once complaint is lodged against a Nigerian, the
police immediately obtain a warrant and carries out a search, arrest the Nigeria and slam charges on him. The Nigerian is taken to an undisclosed location and not allowed access to their phones or contact with lawyers as the law demands.
Again, the law is not respected as they are detained for more than 48 hours without being charged to court. Even when court injunctions granted stopping immigration officials from effecting deportation of Nigerians, they are not obeyed.
Also, Kenyan security agents are quick to breach diplomatic protocol, as they do not contact the Nigerian embassy before charging and deporting its citizens.
What is worrisome is the refusal of the authorities to give Nigerians fair hearing even when lawyers intervene on their behalf. Following the deportation of the six Nigerians, there is the fear that the development is likely to continue except the Nigerian government intervenes. Trouble is believed to have started when Nigerians started resisting attempts by Kenyans to grab their businesses.
Apparently baffled by the success of Nigerians in business, their Kenyan partners got enraged and consequently hatched a plot to run down their businesses and where they fail, they resort to use of security agents to harass unyielding Nigerian businessmen.
But the crisis Nigerians are facing goes beyond business intrigues by their Kenyan partners. Nigerians married to Kenyan women are in for a grab-of-their-husbands’- investments regime. Anti-Nigerian groups explore family crisis to instigate Kenyan women against their Nigerian husbands.
As a result, the number of Kenyan spouses seeking divorce is now said to be on the increase. This is because divorce has been seen as a means to seize the property and investments of their husbands when the question of compensation is raised.
Chinedu who is among the six Nigerians deported yesterday has been described as one of the wealthy Nigerian businessmen who are rumored to be worth over NI billion. His marriage to a Kenyan woman, Joyce Akinyi, collapsed in 2007.
He has, since been having a running battle with her over several issues, including his investments and property as well as the custody of his two children born in July 2001 and April 2004 respectively. They had the children before they were legally married. One of the reasons for the collapse of the marriage was the allegation of adultery Chinedu made against his estranged wife.
He had alleged that Akinyi was having affair with a former Kenyan MP from Budalang’I, Raphael Wanjala. Wanjala would later declare publicly that he was marrying Akinyi. Though Kenya police say Chinedu was deported after 10 grammes of heroin were found in his house, Chinedu insists he was a victim of Akinyi’s revenge plot. This has been confirmed by reports in Kenyan media.
Reports say, “Akinyi had in 2010 asked for the deportation of Chinedu on grounds that he was a danger to Kenya.” Akinyi wrote, “Swift action will be taken to ensure Kenyans are safe from any activities that Chinedu is alleged to have been involved in.”
Not long after, “Former Immigration Minister, Gideon Konchella, on June 19, 2007, directed that Chinedu be deported because he “is one of several foreigners in this country involved in the commission of serious crimes involving trade in narcotics and money laundering.” The plot failed after Chinedu went to court to stop his deportation.
This would turn to be the beginning of Chinedu’s fight against deportation. Faced with the storm of deportation of its members, the leadership of the Nigerian Association in Kenya led by the President, Joe Oladimeji, cried to the Nigerian High Commission for intervention.
According to Daily Sun source, the delegation raised three issues with the Mission: *They asked the Mission to act immediately to stop the current trend where Nigerians are picked up without proper investigation or due process and are branded drug dealers and deported.
*The Mission should clearly play its role of protecting the interests of Nigerians resident in Kenya.
*A call on the Nigerian government to engage more with its citizens in Kenya with the objective of identifying their problems and how fair Kenyans have been to them (Nigerians). Daily Sungathered that the current management of the Nigerian High Commission has shown a lukewarm attitude to the plight of Nigerians in that country.
This is a contrast to that of the former Nigerian High Commissioner, Ambassador Chijoke Wigwe.
Wigwe is said to have protested the unfair treatment being meted to Nigerians. Indeed, Wigwe ensured that Chinedu and others were not deported during his tenure. As it is now, what remains to be seen is the response of the Nigerian government to the crisis consuming its citizens in Kenya.
No comments:
Post a Comment