Kenya has deported Somalia’s Deputy Prime Minister Jibril Abdirashid Haji after he was denied entry at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport over allegations of possessing a fraudulently acquired Kenyan passport, a police report showed on Friday.
The incident reportedly occurred on Wednesday evening at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) after Haji arrived from Mogadishu aboard a Saacid Airlines flight.
According to immigration sources, the Somali official presented a valid Somali diplomatic passport together with an entry visa. However, immigration officers allegedly flagged him after suspecting that he was also carrying a Kenyan passport believed to have been obtained fraudulently.
Sources familiar with the matter said Haji acknowledged having the Kenyan passport but declined to hand it over to immigration officials, insisting that the matter should instead be resolved through the courts.
The standoff led to the Deputy Prime Minister being held at the JKIA VIP Lounge while authorities examined his travel documents. He was later escorted onto a Daallo Airlines flight back to Mogadishu, effectively denying him entry into Kenya.
Neither the Kenyan nor the Somali government had issued an official statement on the incident at the time of publication. However, a senior official at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed that the deportation had taken place.
A police report on the incident indicated: “He departed on 25th at 0645hrs with no incident reported.”
Government sources said authorities are increasingly concerned about the growing number of foreign nationals allegedly obtaining Kenyan passports illegally through corrupt networks.
Investigations into how the alleged Kenyan passport was acquired are ongoing.
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