Somalia's deputy Prime Minister Jibril Abdirashid Haji was also turned back at JKIA after his documents were rejected. [Courtesy]
The integrity of the Kenyan citizenship documents including the birth certificate, identity card and passport will be under scrutiny in the coming days after a Somali minister surrendered Kenyan papers in Mogadishu last week.
Also to come under sharp scrutiny will be the dual citizenship status of top officials in the Somali Federal Government as it emerged that many ministers and top federal government officials hold more than one citizenship.
It follows the decision by Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud ordering his ministers to surrender their Kenyan citizenship documents.
Last month, State Minister Abshir Bukhaari was denied entry into Kenya at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport. He was deported back to Somalia after an afternoon of drama during which he frantically called officials in the Kenya government in vain.
A week later Somalia’s deputy Prime Minister Jibril Abdirashid Haji was also turned back at the airport after his documents were rejected and Kenyan authorities demanded he surrenders his Kenyan passport.
The two deportations are said to have alarmed President Mohamud and forced his hand in issuing an ultimatum to his ministers to show allegiance to Somalia by handing over their foreign documents or relinquish their positions.
Days after he was turned back to Mogadishu, Haji was at Kenya’s embassy in Somalia to turn in his Kenyan documents that included a birth certificate, an identity card and his passport. The deputy premier gave no explanation how he landed the Kenyan documents.