By ANTONY KARANJA
A Kenyan man who has been living in the US for the last 42 years was among those deported to Kenya on Friday. He had been living in the US since 1975.
The 74-year-old man was among the 5 Kenyan and 67 Somali immigrants who who arrived in the country aboard a US charter flight which touched down at JKIA on Friday morning.
The man who did not want to be identified said that he was deported after he left a US courtroom after paying a fine slapped on him by a judge for drunk driving.
He said that after paying the $1,240 (Sh124,000) he was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers as he was leaving the courtroom.
After his arrest, he was sent to am immigration detention camp. He did not specify which state he resided in.
The immigration officers have been lurking around courtrooms to round up those immigrants attending court cases including immigration cases.
Immigration activists around the US have decried these tactics terming them as heavy handed.
The man was sent back to Kenya with only a small bag which contained his clothes and a brown envelope which contained various contact information.
“I am still planning to return to the United States,” he told the Sunday Standard.
The man and the four other Kenyans have recorded statements at the JKIA police station, where they stated that they had been arrested and charged with various crimes in the US.
Some also recorded statements saying that they had served jail terms for the various offenses which included drunk driving, assault and robbery.
“These were not ordinary people who were hounded out of the streets and then deported. They were involved in criminal acts and some had been in detention in the US correctional facilities,” JKIA police boss Zipporah Waweru told the Standard.
They will however not be charged in Kenya as the crimes had been committed in the US and they had served time or received appropriate punishment for them.
Two of the Kenyans in the group had been arrested as they tried to enter Canada illegally.
The Kenyan authorities were expecting 88 deportees but only 72 arrived. The fate of the remaining 2 Kenyans and 14 Somalis has not been established.
The 67 Somali nationals who arrived in handcuffs were processed by immigration authorities before being placed on a flight to Mogadishu.
