15 immigration officers fired

By MWANIKI MUNUHE

The government has fired at least 15 senior and middle level managers in the Department of Immigration, Interior Cabinet Secretary Joseph ole Lenku announced yesterday.

Mr Lenku said the action was after an internal audit carried out by his ministry ostensibly to strengthen government response to future security challenges by establishing and identifying loopholes terrorists may have exploited.

“We have fired 15 senior and mid-level immigration officers who, in one way or the other, were implicated in the issuance of Kenyan identity documents to illegal immigrants thereby endangering national security. The said officers will appear in court soon to face the law,” he said.

Policing  initiative

Surprisingly however, Lenku declined to release the names or the actual positions held by the officers he fired. The Standard On Saturday, however, later recieved a list of those fired (see right).

 Conspicuously absent from the press briefing held at the Office of the President, Harambee House, was the entire leadership of the Directorate of Immigration.

A source at the Office of the President said that officers from the Directorate of Immigration had not been invited to the meeting.

Similarly, the names of the officers fired had not been shared with the directorate.

“The list is closely guarded, as at now, it has not been sent to the immigrations department and we have not seen it either,” the source said.

These sentiments were confirmed by a senior manager at Immigration who said they were yet to be informed of the identity of those fired. “The entire department is in suspense as we speak, the anxiety is running high because nobody knows who will go and who will remain. Everybody here looks like they are in a go-slow.

“Immigration is a security issue. In a security establishment, you only announce sackings after you have notified and cleared those fired from their respective offices. Otherwise those who suspect will go can do anything before their letter gets to them. I think that was a technical blunder,” he said.

The move comes hardly two months after the department introduced former district commissioners to take charge of crucial dockets within the department.

 “For avoidance of doubt, let me say this loud and clear, the purge that has started today will extend to many other government departments.

“So to all those who may have been part of the network facilitating issuance of Kenyan identification documents to illegal immigrants who turn out to be criminals, I have only one message to you, your days are clearly numbered,” said Ole Lenku.

The Cabinet secretary further said the ministry has deployed 17 senior and experienced administration officers to the Department of Immigration. Similarly, ministry directed that waiting cards for identity cards will cease to be legal documents after three months, saying that any person holding a waiting card that has exceeded three months will be arrested.

“Presently, there are 350,000 uncollected identity cards in our registration centres countrywide, I have given instructions that if these cards are not collected within three months, they will be destroyed,” he said. He  said the government is also working closely with the government of Somalia and UNHCR to repatriate refugees back to Somalia.

The government has also constituted a committee that will spearhead community-policing initiative across the country.