A Kenyan-Swede who was stripped of his Swedish citizenship by the Swedish authorities will be deported to Kenya on Thursday June 19th unless something dramatic happens. The Kenyan, who is in police custody, has been facing an assortment of charges in A Swedish court.
The Kenyan has resided in Sweden for 15 years while he has a 10 year old child who was born in Sweden and who is a Swedish citizen. The stripping of his citizenship and the subsequent decision to deport him was strange because he has a child in Sweden who is required by law to have access to both parents as long as they are alive.
In a last minute attempt to try and stop his deportation, the Kenyan took contact with KSB to intervene and to express his disappointment with the Kenyan Embassy in Stockholm which, he said, refused to help after he was stripped of his Swedish citizenship.
According to the Kenyan, Sigrid Ekström, an Immigration official who took the decision in his case, told him that the case could be turned around if the Kenyan Embassy could write a letter to the Swedish authorities outlining the fact that given the circumstances surrounding his case, the Embassy could not guarantee that the Kenyan government will accept him back without problems.
The Kenyan said that Mathias Gustavsson, a police officer working with the Immigration department, told him that his Department had contacted the Kenyan Embassy seeking communication but that the Embassy had failed to respond.
When KSB contacted the Embassy, Daniel Kotut, an official, said that they knew about the case and that the Embassy is taking care of the matter. When questioned on what the Embassy was doing to address the problem, Kotut insisted that “we are looking into the matter”.
The Kenyan told KSB that the Embassy had never visited him since he was taken into custody while he also accused the Embassy of failing to take contact with the Swedish authorities whom, he said, were ready to reconsider his case if the Embassy agreed to get involved. The Kenyan felt that the Embassy had abandoned him after his Swedish citizenship was taken away.
He said that he had spoken to Kotut and that the Embassy official told him that the Mission “had written a letter” to the Swedish authorities.
THE STRUGGLE WITH KOTUT AT THE EMBASSY
“When I asked Kotut the kind of letter they had written or whether he could send it to me, he said that he was not in a position to take the letter from the file without the permission of the Ambassador”, the Kenyan told KSB. He added that Kotut told him that he (Kotut) could not do anything because the Ambassador was in Germany for a tour.
When KSB took contact with Kotut on Wednesday June 18th to follow up the matter, the Embassy official said that he had just spoken with the Kenyan and that the Embassy was waiting for the Kenyan to write a letter addressed to the Embassy saying what the Kenyan wanted to be included in the letter to the Swedish authorities. This was strange because Kotut had earlier told the Kenyan that the Embassy had written the letter.
KSB then took contact with the Kenyan in custody and informed him that the Embassy was waiting for communication from him.
“Tell Kotut that I am in custody. I have no pen and paper to write anything. I have no fax or email and there is no time. I have told him what to write”, the Kenyan said. He had less than 24 hrs to get the letter from the Embassy.
When KSB took a new contact with Kotut, he disconnected the phone after he was put on the line by the Receptionist who diverts calls to Embassy staff.
KSB then took contact with the Kenyan to update him that Kotut was not taking phone calls and the Kenyan requested that KSB dictate the content of the letter Kotut wanted through the phone so that the information the Swedish authorities wanted could be included in the Embassy letter.
He also gave a fax number 010 4852487 and requested that if the Embassy could fax the letter to that number, it could stop his deportation. The information he wanted included in the Embassy letter read as follows:
“The Kenyan Embassy in Stockholm cannot guarantee that Mr. xxx will be accepted by the Kenyan authorities if he is deported to Kenya under the circumstances that have come to our attention”.
Armed with this information, KSB tried to take contact with Kotut to relay what the Kenyan wanted included in the letter but the receptionist said that Mr. Kotut could not take calls because “he was on another line”.
Because of the urgency of the matter, KSB requested to dictate the information to the Receptionist so that he could pass it as a note to Kotut to help him write the letter instead of “calling later” and the Receptionist accepted. He also took the Fax number and said that he would inform Kotut to call KSB for further collaboration on how the Kenyan could be helped but Kotut never called.
KSB then updated the Kenyan in custody that the information was now with the Embassy and that he should try and reach Kotut on phone about the letter. When the Kenyan took contact with KSB later in the evening, he said that Kotut was no longer taking calls from him and that the letter had not been faxed. He said that the Swedish authorities were planning to deport him at 4 am on Thursday 19th June and that he had sought the help of a Human Rights organization in Sweden. KSB is following the story.
Okoth Osewe
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