Kenyan Family Denied Visas to Attend Mother's Burial in the US

By John Wanjohi  Tue, 01/26/2021 @ 04:50pm  2053 views 16 comments

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A Kenyan family has decried the decision by the US Embassy in Nairobi to reject their applications for visas.

Six members of the family were seeking to travel to the US to attend the burial of their kin, Jane Wambui Muguku, who passed away on December 30th, 2020, after a long illness. 

The Standard reports that she was diagnosed with myelodysplastic syndrome, a type of blood cancer, in 2018.

Jane, a Kenyan-American, moved to the US in 2001 and settled in Seattle, Washington before she was joined by her husband, John Muguku the following year.

Jane’s four children, Martin, Maina, Charles, and Irene, their aunt, and sister-in-law had planned to travel to the US to pay their last respects.

They applied for visas and paid the Sh17,600 non-refundable fee each but their applications were all rejected, with the embassy noting that they failed to provide proof that they would return after traveling to the US. 

"You have not demonstrated that you have the ties that will compel you to return to your home country after your travel to the United States. Today's decision cannot be appealed. However, you may feel free to reapply at any time.”

"If you decide to reapply, you must submit a new application form and photo, pay the visa application fee again, and make a new appointment to be interviewed by a consular officer," a letter from the embassy read.

The applicants had presented a letter addressed to the embassy by the director of the funeral home where the remains of Jane are being preserved, and another by the Congress representative for Seattle, Derek Kilmer.

"We are feeling the pain because we are not going for pleasure, we are going to lay our mother to rest. We are in business, so we don't have reason to stay in the US. We just wanted a two-week visa to bury our mother and come back because we have not seen her for the last 19 years. None of us wanted to go settle there," Maina stated.

Martin said: "They didn't ask for any document. They just interviewed us. They asked who would pay for my ticket, what I do for a living and the reason for travel, the cost of the ticket and whether we have relatives in the US. Those were the common questions." 

The family says they will be forced to attend the burial virtually. Jane is set to be laid to rest on January 29th.

Kenyan Charged in US Court over $7.4 Million Wildlife Smuggling Ring

 

By John Wanjohi  Tue, 01/26/2021 @ 03:22pm  537 views 0 comments

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Suspected Kenyan drug and wildlife trafficker, Mansur Mohamed Surur was on Tuesday charged in a New York court, a day after he was extradited to the US from Kenya.

Surur, 60, was charged with conspiracy to traffic tons of elephant ivory and rhino horns, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and conspiracy to possess and distribute more than 10 kilograms of heroin. He pleaded not guilty to all the charges and was detained without bail.

US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Audrey Strauss in a statement on Monday said Surur was arrested by Kenyan authorities on July 29th, 2020, in Mombasa.

He was arrested on charges of conspiracy to traffic in rhinoceros horns and elephant ivory, both endangered wildlife species, which led to the illegal poaching of over 35 rhinoceros and more than 100 elephants.

Surur was charged alongside two other suspects; Moazu Kromah and Amara Cherif. The fourth suspect, Abdi Hussein Ahmed, a Kenyan national, remains a fugitive.

“Kromah, Cherif, Surur, and Ahmed were members of a transnational criminal enterprise based in Uganda and surrounding countries that was engaged in the large-scale trafficking and smuggling of rhinoceros horns and elephant ivory,” Audrey said.

Cumulatively, the four are alleged to have conspired to smuggle and sell 190 kilograms of rhino horns and at least 10 tons of elephant ivory valued at $7.4 million (over Sh800 million). They committed the offenses between December 2012 and May 2019.

The ivory and rhino horns were trafficked from various countries including Uganda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Guinea, Kenya, Mozambique, Senegal, and Tanzania, to buyers located in the US and countries in Southeast Asia.

Trust when You Don't Understand - Joel Osteen

 

Kenyans in Diaspora Defy Covid-19 Crisis, Send Home Sh28.8 Billion in October

By John Wanjohi  Mon, 11/23/2020 @ 08:55am  293 views 0 comments

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Kenyans in the diaspora have continued to defy the financial crisis occasioned by the Covid-19 pandemic by sending home more cash.

The diaspora sent home Sh28.8 billion ($263.2 million) in October, according to the latest data by the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK). In the same month last year, Sh24.6 billion ($224.3 million) was received, a 17.3 percent growth.

The amount also represents about a 1.5 percent increase from the Sh28.4 billion remitted by Kenyans living and working abroad in the previous month (September 2020). 

The cumulative diaspora remittances in the 10 months to October this year rose by 7.1 percent to Sh328.5 billion from Sh306.6 billion at the same time last year.

The growth in diaspora inflows has defied expectations by the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) and the World Bank. The two had predicted a slump in the remittances due to the shocks faced by Kenyans abroad including work-related restrictions and job cuts triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Diaspora inflows have remained Kenya’s leading source of foreign exchange since 2015 ahead of earnings from tourism, tea, coffee, and horticulture exports. 

Last year, Kenyans abroad wired home a record $2.8 billion (Sh306.2 billion). Kenya is the fourth-largest recipient of diaspora remittances in Africa behind Egypt, Nigeria, and Ghana.