Kenya Stockholm Blog

Benta Wanjiru, a Kenyan woman resident in Stockholm, has said that she did not betray her former boyfriend Basoli to police as had been reported in KSB last week. Speaking on telephone from her residence, Wanjiru said that since the story was published, she has been experiencing difficulties associating with friends who were apparently surprised that after breaking up with the young Kenyan boy, she gave him away to be deported.

“Let me say this. I am not responsible for the deportation of Basoli and I can never do such a thing in my life”, she told KSB categorically. She said that Basoli was not arrested at the residence where she lived but as he returned from work. “Police were waiting for him outside the residence and as soon as he arrived, they took him”, Wanjiru told KSB. According to the Kenyan woman, whoever brought the story to KSB may not have known exactly that Basoli was arrested outside the house. She said that the story had been changed to imply that Basoli was arrested in her presence and that it was her who sold him out.

According to Wanjiru, Basoli was already a “U-boat” (living underground) at the time of his arrest and that police had been looking for him for a long time. “We did not move from my residence because of financial problems as reported by KSB. We moved to protect Basoli after police came for him one day and missed him. She said that she did not know how police came to discover Basoli’s new hiding place before laying a trap. She also said that she had not split up with Basoli in favour of their new landlord.

“It is all common sense. You don’t split up with a guy, take up a new guy immediately all in one apartment”, she said. “Those spreading rumours that I split up with Basoli are the very people who may have sold him out before heaping blames on me”, she said.

She said that she had decided to speak to KSB after making very difficult decisions. “I have come to understand that if I don’t clear my name, Kenyans and those who know me will continue to hold me responsible for something I did not do”, she said.

Was Basoli a criminal?
Sounding very upset, Wanjiru said that it is very difficult to live with the stigma of having sold out a fellow Kenyan to police, more so, a lover. “Since this story was published, I have been experiencing a lot of nightmares because suddenly, everybody hates me for something I did not do”, she said.

On the question of refusing to deliver Basoli’s belongings to police, Wanjiru said that she tried to do so but police refused to give her an appointment, arguing that Basoli was a criminal who was not allowed by law to have contact with anybody.

The police apparently told Wanjiru that Basoli was a criminal because he has been residing in Sweden illegally. “They said that he refused to report to police after his case was dismissed and after he was made aware that he was supposed to leave the country”, Wanjiru said.

When asked whether she had divorced Basoli, Wanjiru said that anybody claiming that she had done so should produce evidence.

“I did not divorce Basoli. He still remains my husband. The problem is that police insisted that he had to return home to apply for a Residence Permit from the Swedish Embassy in Nairobi” and that under the circumstances, their marriage was shaky because it had not been recognized by the Swedish government. “Talk that I had divorced Basoli is propaganda”, she said.

When reminded that Basoli had said that she had divorced him, Wanjiru said that Basoli may have said so because he was in police custody where he had no information about the truth. “When you are in police custody and you don’t know how you got there, you can blame anybody”, Wanjiru said. She promised to travel to Kenya to reunite with her husband and to submit an application for Residence Permit together with Basoli. “We will then return to Sweden to shame the liars and haters of Kenya-Stockholm who are spoiling my name for selfish ends”.

Asked why anyone should be interested in spoiling her name, she said that after living in Sweden for 13 years, she had many enemies. “If possible, there are people who may want to eat me alive but to them I only have one message. “haters hate me because I am a reflection of what they want to be”, she said philosophically.

Okoth Osewe