The Directorate of Criminal Investigations has issued a warning to an international airline over alleged involvement in the smuggling of people via Jomo Kenyatta International Airport.
In a letter dated September 6, Officer Commanding Anti-Terrorism Unit at the JKIA said staff attached to various agencies at the airport are also involved in the illegal activity.
"This office has noted with a lot of concern that people are being smuggled in and out of the country through Jomo Kenyatta International Airport with the assistance of airport staff which include National Police Service personnel, Kenya Airport Authority personnel, airlines personnel (and) Immigration personnel," the anti-terror unit officer said.
The letter seen by the Star indicates that the station manager at JKIA of the airline in question received it on September 11, 2023.
"This serves as a warning to all agencies named to desist from the practice. Legal action will be taken on anyone caught," the letter said.
A video shared on social media platform X on September 11 captured an Immigration officer denying a man who said he was from Uganda travel approval to Canada via JKIA.
The officer is heard telling the passenger that it's not allowed for a non-resident to obtain a visa from a foreign country to another destination when they could have done that from their home country.
"You need to go back to Uganda and start the journey from there," the Immigration officer told the passenger who said he was destined for Toronto.
The officer further explained that Canada was currently not receiving Kenyan migrants who were on a job-finding mission since they were getting stranded on arrival in the country.
"They are either returned or they are met with a lot of difficulties or challenges. They have to go to the streets to survive to find the ways of coming back," he said.
He said the only way a passenger can pass through Kenya is if his or her visa was secured in their mother country with an onward boarding ticket indicating a connecting flight at JKIA.
"So, this is not going to be possible, you will have to go back to Uganda...it's official, we have a memo. We cannot allow anybody from any other country to travel through Kenya to Canada," he said.
The officer said the leeway would be if a passenger travelling on a visitor's visa obtains a return air ticket, seemingly as a guarantee that they would return home.
