ODM-Scandinavia has noted with deep concern the predicament facing Mrs Anna Okoth on the question of her Passport which the Kenyan government has failed to deliver seven months after the application was submitted through the Kenyan Embassy in Stockholm.
The Passport saga is a big shame to the Kibaki government because it is an indication of failure even at the lowest level of government. The inability of the Kenyan Ambassador to Scandinavia to offer explanations as to why Mrs Okoth cannot get her Passport is even more disturbing because as the head of the Mission in Stockholm where the old Passport was submitted, it is her responsibility to follow up the matter at the highest level of government especially if it is clear that the delay in issuing the Passport is having a negative impact on the image of the Kenyan government.
From the point of view of ODM-Scandinavia, the Ambassador should have contacted the Principle Immigration Officer directly for an explanation and if no action was fourth-coming, she ought to have contacted the Office of the Vice President under which the Immigration Department falls. It has to be accepted that the long period the application has taken makes the case unique, given that the official waiting time is six weeks.
The negative publicity being generated against the Kibaki government by the Anna Passport saga is not proportional to the problem and since the Ambassador has the ear of the President, she ought to have utilized key government contacts in Kenya to alert the regime that the Anna Passport issue needs to be sorted out because of the devastating consequences within the framework of Public Relations.
Whether implicitly or explicitly, the Ambassador, through her lackadaisical attitude towards the issue, is actively abetting in the further destruction of the already battered image of the Kibaki government, a horrendous mistake in an election year.
While ODM-Scandinavia puts the blame on the door steps of the Ambassador Mrs Purity Muhindi, our Party believes that the Anna Passport issue is a mirror reflection of the calamitous failure of both the Kenyan Embassy in Stockholm and the Kibaki government back home.
We congratulate Mrs Okoth for having come out publicly to demand, unequivocally, her Passport and to assert her right to the document as a Kenyan citizen. We admire her militancy and strong resolve to struggle if that is what it takes to get her Passport. We believe that there are Kenyans who continue to suffer in silence thinking that “nothing can be done”.
ODM-Scandinavia believes that no Kenyan should go through what Mrs Okoth is currently going through just to get that document called a Kenyan Passport because there are more important issues that deserve more time and attention.
It is for this reason that we urge Kenyans looking for real political changes in our country to vote out the Kibaki government come the next election. Denial of Passports to Kenyan citizens are tactics that should have died with the defeat of the government of former dictator Daniel arap Moi.
Now that this soap opera is replaying itself in Stockholm in 2007, it is time for Kenyans at home and abroad to understand that the Kibaki government is unfit to govern and that President Kibaki should return to Othaya to retire after the December elections.
ODM-S adds its voice to calls that Mrs Okoth be issued with a Kenyan Passport without delay. The Party branch will continue to follow this matter very closely as we contemplate our next action.
We agree with Anna – that a delegation of concerned Kenyans should be sent to the Kenyan Embassy in Stockholm as soon as possible to meet with the Kenyan Ambassador and to establish why the Kibaki government is trying to roll back the democratic gains of the past four decades, gains that were paid for with life and blood. We say “Issue Mrs Anna Okoth with a Kenyan Passport now!”
Mrs Hellen Opwapo
Chairlady
Orange Democratic Movement – Scandinavia (ODM-S)
4th October 2007
About the Author
