Kenya rejects deported Tanzanian

Tarime. The curious case of the man who has been declared a prohibited immigrant (PI) in Tanzania took a dramatic twist at the weekend when Kenyan Immigration officials also ordered him out of their country.

A desperate Mr Anudo Ochieng Anudo is stranded at the no-man’s land on the Tanzania-Kenya border at Sirari since Saturday when he was rejected by authorities of the two East African countries.

He is now technically stateless, with Tanzania Immigration authorities maintaining he is an alien while their Kenyan counterparts insist they have no record to prove Mr Anudo was a citizen of that country.

Mr Anudo says he was born to Tanzanian parents and has been living and working in Manyara Region for years before he fell out with some Immigration officials, leading to the current woes.

His predicament has come full circle, from when he was arrested in Babati and dumped at Namanga border to finding himself homeless at Sirari after an appearance in a Kenyan court that ordered his repatriation.

On Saturday, he was handed over to the Tanzanian authorities that swiftly denied him entry. A puzzled Mr Anudo was joined by his father and mother at the no-man’s land as he waits for an appeal to be lodged with the government. “I am appealing to the government to form an independent probe committee to investigate and establish why my country, Tanzania, is disowning me,” he told The Citizen at the scene.

He said he was in shock over the denial of his Tanzanian citizenship and also in dilemma about what to do next because no one at Immigration was willing to listen to him or his parents. He explains that he was charged at the Chief Magistrate’s Court in Homa Bay, Kenya, on November 6 this year in Criminal Case No. 1127 of 2014 and sentenced to two months in jail or pay a fine of Ksh5,000 (Sh100,000). The court found him guilty of being in Kenya illegally.

Mr Anudo said a good Samaritan paid the fine after realising he had nobody around to help him. Soon after, he was taken by Kenyan police who drove him to the border.

“They asked why the Tanzanian Immigration officers received and signed their court order if they considered me a foreigner,” he explained.

Mr Anudo said that he was born in Masinono Village in Butiama District, but briefly lived with his aunt in Kenya when he was seven-years-old due to a conflict between his parents. The parents have since split up, with the mother moving to Bunda, while the father remained in Rorya.

He said he was enrolled at Nyamonge Primary School in Kenya but quit while in Standard 6 and came back to Tanzania in 1992. He later joined Tabora Teachers College and enrolled for secondary school under the Qualifying Test (QT) plan.

In 2005 joined Pomerin Secondary School in Iringa for his A-Levels which he, however, didn’t finish. He applied for a passport in 2006 following a friend’s invitation to the US. He, however, didn’t make it to America as he was denied a visa.

He then embarked on job hunting and in 2008 was employed by an environmental organisation known as Tecowaremap in Iringa where he worked for two years.

In 2010 Mr Anudo was sponsored by a German NGO called Ped World which sent him to the Danish International College in Arusha where he studied management before being employed by the same organisation.

He said the NGO introduced a fog water project in Manyara Region where he worked as a specialist since 2010.

He said that his citizenship woes started in November 2011, when he was called by Manyara District Administrative Officer (DAS), who he only named as Mtalemwa. He says Mr Mtalemwa summoned him to his office. “When I went, I found him with an Immigration officer named Hamisi alias Mpemba. They said they had information that I was a foreigner.” “They demanded my passport which I handed over to them; they confiscated it and said I should come back the following day. I was then told to report to the Manyara Immigration office where along with the DAS and Hamisi, we were joined by the Regional Immigration officer, Mr Jacob Sambai, who announced that my passport was issued to me illegally.

“They asked me to give them Sh600,000 to conduct an investigation in Mara to establish the authenticity of my citizenship…I gave out the money on the understanding that the government required him to fund the probe; I also didn’t want the matter to take long and interfere with my work.”

He claims that the following day he wa surprised the said Mr Hamisi asked him for Sh1.8 million, claiming that the Sh600,000 wasn’t enough for conducting thorough investigation.

“I declined and demanded that I get back my passport… to no avail. I was instead given an emergency travel document, AB 09417202, to travel within East and Central Africa.”

After realising his passport won’t be released, in February 2013 he wrote to the Prime Minister’s Office to explain his situation. The PMO replied by directing the Commissioner for Immigration to handle the matter and report back.

Mr Anudo says following the order, his father has been interviewed several times by Immigration officers from Manyara and Mara regions. But, after all these interviews, they were still insisting he isn’t a Tanzanian—contrary to testimonies given to them by his father, mother and Nyasoko Village security committee, in Rorya.

On August 28 this year at 5 pm, he was called by Manyara Regional Immigration officer asking him to go and collect his passport but was arrested and detained for six days without any charges.

On September 1, this year, he was forced to sign a Prohibited Immigrant (PI) issued by Immigration before being escorted by two officers to Namanga border and left at the Tanzania Immigration offices at 6pm. The officers there then kicked him out into Kenya without any official document.

He spent the night in the cold. At midnight, a sympathetic Tanzanian driver heading to Nairobi gave him a lift and some money to exit Kenya to his Rorya home through Sirari border.

But, Mr Anudo said he fell unconscious, suspecting that he might have suffered from food poisoning, near a town called Rongo in Kenya. He was then rushed to Homa Bay Hospital and admitted for almost two months.

“The hospital management soon learnt I had no Kenyan ID and handed me over to police upon my discharge on November 3. An investigation was conducted and I ended up in court charged with illegal stay in Kenya.

“I am now back to square one and pleading with the government to order an independent investigation because there has been an attempt by some officers to force my parents to deny me.

On Saturday, Mr Anudo’s father, Mr Anderekus Anudo Achok told The Citizen that he was shocked by the claim that his son isn’t a Tanzanian.

He said that Mr Anudo is the second in his family of five children. He was born in Masinono Village where he lived with his wife from 1961.

Mr Achok said that he was born in 1936 at Nyasoko Village in Rorya District, but later on, he relocated to Masinono, Musoma Rural District, to grow cotton.

At Masinono Village, Mr Achok and his wife were blessed with five children, but four of them died, whereby only Anudo survived.

He said after splitting with his wife, he went back and settled in his original village of Nyasoko, in Rorya District. His wife now lives in Bunda.