Protesters block roads at Namanga over repatriation

Kenyan protestors demand repatriation of Tanzanians after three of their fellows were arrested and arraigned in court by Tanzanian authorities for allegedly being in their country without valid immigration documents. Photo Courtesy

Protesters block roads at Namanga over repatriation

Protesters on Monday blocked the Kenya-Tanzania border road at Namanga and paralysed transport between the two countries.

The Kenyan protesters were demonstrating against President John Maghufuli’s alleged repatriation of their counterparts living in Tanzania. They stormed all the business premises owned by Tanzanians, rounded them up and frog-marched them across the border.

In the process, many Tanzanian businesspeople lost their stock and cash, while barmaids were roughed up and their mobile phones taken away.

Kajiado county commissioner Harsama Kello, who two weeks ago said the situation was under control, said police were headed to the border to manage the protests

Several Kenyans, including those who were born in Tanzania before Independence, have been forced to leave the country if they cannot prove their identity.

Two weeks ago, the Star reported that Tanzanian authorities are targeting Kenyans living in their country without valid documents.

Several people, who were born by their Kenyan parents while living in Tanzania in the early 1960s and who have no link with their parents’ country of origin, have been forced to leave since they can’t prove their Tanzanian nationality.

One of them, Samuel Ngeselai, was forced to flee from Longido district in Tanzania and moved to Kenya, leaving his children and wife of 30 years across the border. Ngeselai is now stateless. He says his grandfather, a Mau Mau activist who escaped to Tanzania in the early 1950s, died in that country.

His mother is bedridden and still living in Tanzania. Kello said the protests started on the border after Tanzanian authorities arrested three Kenyans last Friday and arraigned them in court for being in the country without valid documents.

Source: The Star