Kenya Stockholm Blog

21 Year Old Kenyan Woman Facing Deportation

Mouren Cheptoo, a 21 year old Kenyan lady, is among thousands of asylum seekers in Sweden whose cases were rejected by the immigration authorities in contravention of basic Swedish asylum rules. According to Expressen, a Swedish evening newspaper, Cheptoo’s case was turned down although she fled from his polygamous father after a failed attempt to marry her off and after she escaped from a group of women who attempted Female Genital Mutilation on her

Cheptoo told Expressen that her father “wanted to marry her off with an old man”. The paper had examined 50 cases of female asylum seekers which were rejected by the Swedish Immigration on grounds that, the paper says, amounted to authorities “violating their own rules”. The paper noted that women who had escaped murder, rape, torture and imprisonment routinely had their cases turned down because of violation of rules by Swedish officials handling the cases.

The paper says that the violations are a product of carelessness in how cases should be handled, failure to allow asylum seekers to choose the sex of their interpreters or agents, lack of separate consultations and, in some cases, lack of interpreters. The paper says that the International Red Cross has examined hundreds of such cases and found the Swedish Immigration authorities at fault.

When Mouren came to Sweden in 2006 after escaping being married to a 50 year old who already had three wives, her mother had just died. The Father wanted to marry her off so that he could get money to pay dowry for a new wife he wanted to marry. This prompted the father to try and force Mouren into a marriage before she fled Kenya. Before she could be married off, a key cultural requirement was that her genitals had to be mutilated as a right of passage. Mouren claimed that the father then hired a few men to force the operation.

She told Expressen that “They tried to tie me with a rope and sexually mutilate me. I panicked and managed to run. All night, I hid myself in a maize plantation before I went to a woman in a Church who hid me”, she said.

The woman then told Mouren that she would notify the police about attempts to mutilate her genitals but unfortunately, the policeman hailed from the same ethnic group as her. The policeman told her to go home and later, another police officer demanded an equivalent of about 25,000 kr for reasons she didn’t tell the paper. She then fled to Sweden.

During Cheptoo’s interview with the Immigration officials, she was denied the right to legal representation because her lawyer was sick. Under the rules, the authorities should have postponed the interview because whatever she said during the interview could be used against her. Mouren says that during her contacts with Immigration officials, she was never asked whether she filed a report with the Kenyan police following her ordeal at the hands of her fellow villagers.

The Immigration authorities have argued that claims that her experiences were filed with Kenyan police came later and therefore, the Immigration authorities believe that she is non-credible. The authorities also say that she had not yet exhausted possibilities of protection in Kenya while another argument used in dismissing the case is that the risk of genital mutilation cannot constitute threat of persecution. Cheptoo has lodged an appeal with the Swedish Immigration Court.

Okoth Osewe

December 15, 2008 Posted by makozewe | News & Analysis | 30 Comments

Mwalimu Mati Says “Thank You” For Solidarity

Good afternoon,

Jayne and I would like to thank you all for the solidarity demonstrated with us during the past weekend’s travails.  We were released thanks to your sustained campaign on our behalf without charge.  The investigation of Mars Group may however continue quietly for now.  We would like you all to know that there is nothing to fear in dealing with us.  We are not a subversive organisation and the Partnership for Change initiative is merely a ginger group that seeks to support the work you all are doing.  I am concerned however that some State officials are trying to paint the P4C as something sinister.  We are sure that you won’t believe the hype.

We value your friendship and thanks to you also from Khalif and the three others who were also detained for 3 nights in Garissa.  They have been released on bail of Ksh 5,000 after appearing in court this morning to answer a dubious charge of causing a disturbance.

But we are not out of the woods yet.  It appears as if some emergency regime is in place in Nairobi, even though the National Accord Grand Coalition Government has no legal or moral authority to declare emergencies as first and foremost it is bound by Agenda 1 which required the immediate restoration of our civil and political liberties; and second is a compromise arrangement not founded on a democratic election.  Yesterday, Uhuru Park and Ufungamano House were cordoned off by the GSU as was done in January this year.

Now, I hear that more people have been arrested outside the Harambee House including journalists covering the delivery of a petition by civil society on the Kenya Communications law.  Uhuru Par remains under guard and the Government through the Prime Minister seems to be suggesting that protests are a breach of decorum.

Much appreciation to you all.  We will rest for a day or two to reflect on what happened between December 12 and December 15, so that our next actions do not repeat any mistakes we made.  I trust you will forgiven my non-attendance at the press conference this morning, but we had some urgent house-keeping issues to take care of.  I watched the statement as covered by the media and applaud you.

Asante sana sana sana.

Mwalimu

December 15, 2008 Posted by makozewe | News & Analysis | 1 Comment