Immigration officials at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport refused to honour a court order to restore passports of NASA leaders and barred them from flying out of the country. Senator James Orengo and businessman Jimi Wanjigi had booked tickets to fly to Harare, Zimbabwe to attend the funeral service of opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai when they were stopped at the airport.

Their Kenya Airways flight was scheduled to leave at 9.21 pm but they had checked in by 9.pm. Instead, an immigration officer grabbed Wanjigi’s passport and informed him it was suspended before walking from his desk while on phone. “That passport belongs to me give it to me. You are ignoring court orders,” Wanjigi told one of the immigration officials present. Orengo too shouted asking the immigration officer to identify himself in vain. By then, the other passengers were checking in. The NASA leaders said they called immigration boss Maj-Gen (Rtd) Gordon Kihalangwa over the drama and he told them he had not seen the orders.