• Serem said Kenyans wanting to travel should be ready to fork out the Sh80,000 for a KQ ticket, be a holder of Kenyan passport and abide by the Chinese exit laws.
Kenyans in China wishing to come home at their own cost have up to May 1 to submit their names and details to the Kenyan embassy for facilitation, Ambassador Sarah Serem has said.
As of Thursday, 165 Kenyans had registered, she said.
In a statement addressing the public outcry regarding the widely reported harassment of Kenyans in China, Serem denied that any Kenyan was ever “harassed or evicted from their houses or slept in the streets.”
Serem said Kenyans wanting to travel should be ready to fork out the Sh80,000 for a KQ ticket, be a holder of Kenyan passport and abide by the Chinese exit laws.
“This is not an evacuation. The government of Kenya is only facilitating those who are willing to meet the cost of the ticket,” she said, adding that the individuals “must personally book and pay for it on the platform provided by Kenya Airways.”
The ambassador explained that Chinese authorities in its Southern city of Guangzhou launched tight Covid19 control measures as of April 2020 and that operations saw the enforcement of tough control measures for self-isolation, quarantine and lockdown of some cities.
Other measures included the issuance of special residential passes, issuance of medical/health certificates, and QR Codes on health status which can only be issued to properly documented persons.
"Any behaviour that goes contrary to this is met with the full force of Chinese law," Serem said.
Kenyans, especially those without requisite papers were found at conflict with the law, she added.
Serem said there are 400 Kenyans living in the country illegally doing jobs including private teaching/tutoring, small businesses and casual jobs.
With enforcement of stringent measures due to the Covid-19 outbreak, Serem said, these Kenyan immigrants have no income and hence forced out and that the majority of them are unable to continue staying under cover.
"Some of these have faced rent issues and where the Embassy has been alerted, intervention with local authorities has been made," she said.
In refuting claims of harassment, the ambassador said the embassy has been instrumental in helping the Kenyans affected, in some cases intervening for leniency for those who are at conflict with Chinese law.
For example, she said, the embassy intervened in some cases where landlords had threatened Kenyans. One case she cited was of a Kenyan teacher legally in the country who had been taken into quarantine with his wife and a one-year old child. Serem said Kenyan diplomats in the country intervened and had the man returned to complete the quarantine in his house.
In another, she said, two Kenyan students were outrightly discriminated against by the Chinese authorities when they were picked up and taken into quarantine while their European housemate, a Serbian national, was left behind.
“Intervention led to all the three being quarantined in their apartment. There are several cases of threatened evictions which the Embassy intervened and helped resolve in conjunction with the local authorities,” she added.
In the case of a Kenyan who is alleged to have spent the night outside the embassy and was rained on, the envoy rejected the claims, arguing that the Kenyan named Beatrice Nduta (aka Brenda aka Queen) had a visa which had expired in 2017 but that the embassy helped her.
She had claimed she was evicted from her a residence where a friend was accommodating her and she wanted to stay at the Embassy.
"The Embassy officials came to her rescue, did a quick harambee of RMB3100 (Sh46,500) and off she left to stay with friends until now. Beatrice is the secretary of one of the Kenyan welfare groups in China," she said.
About what she had done to protest the mistreatment of Kenyans, Serem said she signed a joint protest letter alongside other African diplomats to the Chinese authorities.