Interior Cabinet Secretary Joseph ole
Lenku has reversed his decision to revoke the citizenship of 104 people
last November after the legality of his move was questioned.
The Sunday Nation
has established that Mr Lenku quietly rescinded the decision in
February after the individuals moved to court, with judges expected to
make rulings on some of the cases on Tuesday.
According
to correspondence tabled in court by state counsel, Mr Lenku tells some
of those whose citizenship was earlier revoked that he had reversed the
decision, without giving any reasons.
“Reference is
made to the decision communicated to you vide my letter dated November
27, 2013. Kindly note that the decision has been reconsidered and
rescinded with immediate effect while reserving the right to revisit
under Article 17 of the Constitution of Kenya, 2010,” says Mr Lenku in a
letter dated February 5, 2014.
Those affected included
95 individuals originally from India, five from Pakistan, and one each
from Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Uganda and Somalia.
Last
year, the Cabinet Secretary told a press conference that the citizenship
of the 104 individuals had been cancelled because they were allegedly
obtained fraudulently between 2005 and 2010.
Mr Lenku
took the decision in the aftermath of the Westgate terrorist attack on
September 21, 2013, in which at least 69 people were killed.
The
Immigration Department was then under scrutiny after some of its
officials were accused of illegally allowing foreigners considered a
security risk to enter the country.
During the period,
Mr ole Lenku also announced the sacking of 15 immigration officers who
have since moved to court to challenge the decision. And in January, the
Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission opened investigations against the
acting Immigration Director Jane Waikenda for alleged irregular award
of 300 work permits to foreigners.
The Sunday Nation established that the EACC grilled officers at the department afresh last week.
“Permit
committee members were asked to record statements on the reasons they
did not attend the meeting that awarded 300 permits to foreigners,” says
a top official at the department who did not want to be named.
But
in an interesting turn, Ms Waikenda is also said to have written to
EACC and the Head of Public Service Mr Joseph Kinyua accusing some
investigators of blackmailing her to process at least 100 permits every
month on their behalf in exchange for dropping the investigation.
Documents
seen by this paper show that there are slightly over 750 immigration
officers against a projected 1,500. The officers are expected to cover
32 gazetted border control points air, land and sea.
“The current workload demand stands at least 5,000 officers to match the 32 gazetted border points,” says the document.
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