What we missed in the not so diplomatic withdrawal of Ezekiel Mutua’s diplomatic passport

Amidst the furore, and yes a bit of glee, on the internet over the not so diplomatic withdrawal of Ezekiel Mutua’s diplomatic passport; what did we miss?

The self-declared moral policeman is of course almost always at loggerheads with Kenyans on social media who insist he has no right to tell them how to live and should stick to classifying film content. But that is not the point.

It’s rather interesting that our Immigration Department does not seem to know who has or doesn’t have a diplomatic passport. It took a man’s boasting on Facebook and subsequent citizens’ rants for the good men and women at Immigration to sit up and realise that Ezekiel Mutua does not in fact qualify, anymore at least, for a diplomatic passport!

Something doesn’t add up. The Immigration Department says Mutua was issued with the famous passport in 2013, allegedly when he was working for the Foreign Affairs Ministry. Ezekiel Mutua’s self-authored curriculum vitae has no mention of him ever working for Foreign Affairs, that is until his statement to newsrooms today explaining how that appointment was in fact halted.

Here’s is the problem, according to the Immigration Department, Mutua simply did not return the passport upon leaving foreign affairs; but on the other hand his braggadocious Facebook post suggested that he had clinched the coveted document just a few days ago. Incredulously, he is asked to return the passport when he has in fact already used it to travel, not to Uganda or Ethiopia, but all the way to the United States of America.

Is there nobody at the airport checking the kind of passport everybody uses? Now, while Ezekiel Mutua is a government official and may typically not mean any harm, how sure can we be that we don’t have some crazy fellow with ill intentions out there, walking around with our diplomatic passport?

Please remember that corruption in the immigration department is well documented as a threat to the country’s security as terrorists have manipulated this loophole to get in and commit their acts. And unlike Mr. Mutua, terrorists and other criminals who lay their hands on such documents, will know better than brag on Facebook or take selfies in the plane.

That’s my take!

@YvonneOkwara