Kenya Stockholm Blog

Passport Renewal Through Embassy Taking More Than 6 Months

If you are a Kenyan citizen and you deposit your old Passport at the Kenyan Embassy in Stockholm for a new one, expect to wait for more than half a year. Mrs Anna Okoth, a Kenyan citizen, deposited her passport at the Embassy in March. After she fulfilled all requirements, she was informed by Embassy staff that the Passport would take a maximum of six weeks to process. It is now more than 30 weeks and her Passport is nowhere to be seen.

Several contacts with the Kenyan Embassy have not yielded any progress. When she first phoned the Embassy after three months of waiting, she spoke to a white Swedish woman who refused to give her name. The lady had no explanations as to why her passport had delayed. She promised that she would write a letter to Nairobi to find out what had happened. She never communicated again.

The next time Ann took contact with the Embassy, she was told that the Passport “is coming next week” with the diplomatic baggage. The kabaggage normally comes on a Thursday or Friday and she was told that she would be notified by phone so that she could pick up the Passport immediately. Nothing happened and the Official she spoke to has never made a single contact  for an update.

Ann then started getting worried so she got in touch with KSB for help. That was in June. KSB is interested in exposing irregularities at the Embassy especially corruption, land grabbing at the residence, mistreatment of supportive staff, negative attitude of the Ambassador towards Kenyans, corruption, human smuggling or anything that could lead to a bashing of the Kenyan Embassy. This is because the Embassy has a long history of “Non delivery” so we took up the matter.

I called the Embassy and spoke to Mr. George Kinyua, the First secretary. He said that the Embassy had no explanations as to why the Passport had delayed but promised to get in touch with Nairobi to find out what may have happened. Nothing happened.

Two days ago, KSB made a fresh contact with the Embassy to follow up the matter. I spoke to Jenipher Awuor, a senior lady at the Embassy who also promised that she would get in touch with Nairobi to find out what may have happened. She promised to write a letter. The waiting continues.

It looks like there is a standard procedure at the Embassy when questions regarding delays of Passports come up and talking to Nairobi to find out what may have happened or promising to write a letter to Nairobi “to remind them” are the weapons of choice. Then there is talk about the diplomatic bag coming “next week”. Since March, that bag has now come and gone more than 30 times and the Embassy needs to say clearly the number of diplomatic bags that are still expected before the Passport arrives.

Embassy staff may not share the blame completely and they may argue that once they dispatch a Passport to Nairobi for a new one, they simply have to wait. Unfortunately, Passports have been disappearing on their way back to the Embassy. There is the case of Grace whose Passport “got lost” on its way back from Kenya and she had to begin the whole process once again. What exactly happens to Passports dispatched to Kenya and why do they delay or get lost altogether?

A simple extension of a Passport is normally done at the Embassy almost immediately and you don’t have to wait. When your Passport is forwarded to Nairobi for a new one, make sure you don’t need to travel immediately.

The latest Permanent Resident Permits (PUT) issued by the Swedish government is valid for an indefinite period of time. Once your Passport arrives in Nairobi with the Permit on one of its pages, investigations from Nairobi has revealed that the Passport begins to undergo a unique transformation to make it possible for the document to be used for human smuggling. For a Passport brought in before it expires completely (sometimes it could have 3-4 months to go), the experts in Nairobi simply change the picture and its ready for use. This is not done in some back street workshop but at the department of Immigration.

AMBASSADOR PURITY HAS FAILED AT THE EMBASSY
As you wait for your Passport to be processed, it is in fact being used to transport human beings across boarders. Once the Passport expires, the next task is to try and transfer the Permit on it to a new Passport (with the details of the owner except the picture) so that it could be used further. We were told that this is a much more difficult task because of the “high-tech” adhesive normally used to paste the Permit on the Passport.

“There are guys who know how to do it using a special chemical”, said the contact in Nairobi.  Our contact said that it is partly for this reason that the United States has been working with the idea of “Biological Passports” to beat this kind of fraud. When asked why the Passports have to disappear, he said that sometimes, the old passport which had not expired has too many stamps which might bring questions in case it is returned to the owner and the same case applies to any new Passport which has already been used.

Anybody who can change a picture on a Passport without leaving traces that the Passport has been tampered with could make that Passport available for use by second or third parties. Corruption at the Department of Immigration is so rife that we were told that changing pictures on Kenyan “Passports of value” is almost routine. They are called “Chambele” Passports.  Kenyans are paying as much as half a million Kenyan shillings to be smuggled out of Kenya. For this reason, any Passport that could be used to make money has to be delayed as long as possible.   

In a developing scandal, the Kenyan Embassy has been in crisis because it has been bringing in people from all walks of life as “Diplomatic staff” and once they go through the process and enter Sweden, they are “sacked” from their diplomatic positions to pave way for new “recruits”. The process, which involves a huge amount of cash as “smuggling fees” (one Kenyan paid 430.000), has been going on with the very knowledge of H.E Plenipotentiary.

A victim who was “sacked” after arriving in Sweden and told to look for his own ways into the Swedish society nearly blew up the scandal in the Swedish media before he was prevailed upon by temporarily being taken care of.

When asked why he did not have a “Diplomatic Passport”, he said that he is not a diplomat. “There are house maids working for diplomatic staff without status but they passed through Jomo Kenyatta (International Airport)”, he said. “The difference between me and them is that they have a house they are living in”, he added, hardening his face as if thinking of shooting someone.

He was referring to maids permanently locked in villas and threatened with deportation in case they open their mouths about their condition. They are normally paid 1000 kr per month or less and told to shut up because that amount is an equivalent of Ksh 10.000 which no maid can dream of earning in Kenya.  In the meantime, the boss informs Nairobi that he/she has a maid being paid a salary according to Swedish labour laws ie 15.000 kr per month. By keeping the maid locked ina de house, the boss is making 14.000 kr. For Kenyan diplomats in Sweden, the practice of employing maids is a lucrative business although you might call it corruption if you like!

There is more than meets the eye with more than 6 month delays with Kenyan Passports presented for renewal through the Embassy. This is not to say that Embassy staff are involved in human smuggling. There are a few “Top brass” who are in the know and the matter is a well guided secret. If you are a Swedish citizen and you need a Passport, you get it in an hour whether you are in Sweden or abroad. What is wrong with our country?

The Ambassador Mrs Purity Muhindi, has been nonchalant and opaque to criticism because she knows that she will be packing her belongings and probably taking the first flight to Nairobi once Kibaki loses power. Her attitude, we were told, is to exploit her position as much as possible because as a Political scientist, the 47 year old has done her analysis so whether Osewe writes in the blog or not, she is focused.

It is also for this reason that she does not care about Wakenya in Stockholm. It is only recently that Wakenya began to accept the fact that Ambassador Michael Sergon and Mukiri Kinyanjui were better off because regardless of criticisms, they maintained a link with Wakenya. With Passports taking more than six months to process without Purity being able to intervene, the Kenyan Embassy should as well be closed down.

As a woman at the helm at the Embassy, Purity is showing a very bad example because she is promoting the perception that Women Ambassadors are bogus because they cannot put pressure even in situations in which they are in control. The last two Ambassadors  had their own weaknesses but they were much better than Purity who has cut off herself from Wakenya. If President Kibaki has failed in Kenya, Ambassador Purity has failed at the Kenyan Embassy in Stockholm.

Okoth Osewe
 

August 30, 2007 Posted by makozewe | News & Analysis | Leave a Comment