Interior Cabinet Secretary Joseph ole Lenku. Anxiety has gripped the Immigration department after Interior Secretary, Joseph ole Lenku, quietly deployed 17 former district commissioners to man border and passport control posts countrywide. FILE Photo
By ANDREW TEYIE
Monday, April 07, 2014
Interior Cabinet Secretary Joseph ole Lenku has reversed his decision to revoke the citizenship of 104 people last November after the legality of his move was questioned.
The Sunday Nation has established that Mr Lenku quietly rescinded the decision in February after the individuals moved to court, with judges expected to make rulings on some of the cases on Tuesday.
According to correspondence tabled in court by state counsel, Mr Lenku tells some of those whose citizenship was earlier revoked that he had reversed the decision, without giving any reasons.
“Reference is made to the decision communicated to you vide my letter dated November 27, 2013. Kindly note that the decision has been reconsidered and rescinded with immediate effect while reserving the right to revisit under Article 17 of the Constitution of Kenya, 2010,” says Mr Lenku in a letter dated February 5, 2014.
Those affected included 95 individuals originally from India, five from Pakistan, and one each from Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Uganda and Somalia.
Last year, the Cabinet Secretary told a press conference that the citizenship of the 104 individuals had been cancelled because they were allegedly obtained fraudulently between 2005 and 2010.
Mr Lenku took the decision in the aftermath of the Westgate terrorist attack on September 21, 2013, in which at least 69 people were killed.
The Immigration Department was then under scrutiny after some of its officials were accused of illegally allowing foreigners considered a security risk to enter the country.
During the period, Mr ole Lenku also announced the sacking of 15 immigration officers who have since moved to court to challenge the decision. And in January, the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission opened investigations against the acting Immigration Director Jane Waikenda for alleged irregular award of 300 work permits to foreigners.
The Sunday Nation established that the EACC grilled officers at the department afresh last week.
“Permit committee members were asked to record statements on the reasons they did not attend the meeting that awarded 300 permits to foreigners,” says a top official at the department who did not want to be named.
But in an interesting turn, Ms Waikenda is also said to have written to EACC and the Head of Public Service Mr Joseph Kinyua accusing some investigators of blackmailing her to process at least 100 permits every month on their behalf in exchange for dropping the investigation.
Documents seen by this paper show that there are slightly over 750 immigration officers against a projected 1,500. The officers are expected to cover 32 gazetted border control points air, land and sea.
“The current workload demand stands at least 5,000 officers to match the 32 gazetted border points,” says the document.