Liberian fugitive demands to be told how his children were deported

By CYRUS OMBATI

NAIROBI, KENYA: The former chairperson of Liberia’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) has asked the Kenyan government to investigate how his three children were deported from the country.

Jerome Verdier, who has asylum status in Kenya, has also written to the Judiciary to protest the manner in which a ruling was issued to grant custody of the children to his former wife. The children, aged 11, six and three, are now in Liberia with their mother.

Verdier claimed powerful individuals, without the knowledge of the Immigration department, facilitated their departure from Nairobi.

In his letter to the Judicial Service Commission, the Chief Justice, and the Law Society of Kenya dated October 14, Verdier complains about the ruling, saying he was awarded four days in a week to see his children for the next 30 days, pending the outcome of the appeal for visitation.

“I don’t know when I am going back to Liberia. My children will be the cause of me going back there but I don’t know when,” said an emotional Verdier, adding that he does not know how the children left for Liberia. The court had initially ordered the children not be removed from Nairobi.

Verdier and his wife, Mawah Kamara, separated in 2010. He then fled to the US while his children came to Kenya, where he later joined them.

However, the Government of Liberia issued a warrant of arrest for him, his current wife, Hawa Gbana, and the children for what they termed kidnapping of his children.

Liberia sent its legal counsel to Kenya to visit the Foreign Affairs ministry seeking enforcement and compliance of these orders, saying their lives were not in danger and they had to be deported.

The representative also said the government had not authorised Verdier to leave the country with his children since the local courts had awarded custody of the children to his former wife, Mawa Kamara.

 The children were then arrested and put in the care of Kabete Children’s Home until October 11, when the ruling was issued by acting Principle Magistrate Anthony Mwicigi at the Milimani Children’s Court.