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It was very strange, very worrying, very threatening and very dangerous. My finger prints were not taken as was done to all the other people who arrived at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport on the 16th. of November 2015. This requires an explanation from the government.
I traveled in the Delta plane from New York to Paris. From Paris to Kenya, I boarded a Kenya airways plane. The plane landed at the Jomo Kenyatta International airport at around 9 pm on November 16, 2015. I arrived at the check in point between 9.30 pm and 10 pm, where everyone had finger prints taken on arrival at the Airport.
Something very strange happened to me when I got to the registration desk where finger prints were being taken. After the lady who was responsible for taking finger prints took my Kenyan passport and checked in the computer , she looked at me as though confused and astonished. And without doing anything to my passport and without taking my finger prints, she gave me back my passport, and by the use of the body language, she signaled me to leave by waving her hand indicating that she was done with me. I became amazed, confused and puzzled at the predicament. A Kenyan who already had finger prints taken ahead of me, and who had promised to show me where to buy a Kenyan sim card, was surprised to see me pass without my finger prints taken.
The Kenyan asked me whether I was a diplomat or someone special. I answered and said that , I was no one other than a common Kenyan traveler. Many people had come to the airport to pick this person from the airport. So, as we walked together to the Safari-com shop to buy a sim card, we were a large group. Soon, those who had come all the way from Nakuru to pick me, arrived and joined us at the Safari-com shop. After buying the sim card we left for Nakuru, leaving the other group in Nairobi. There was traffic jam all the way from Nairobi to Nakuru, partially because it was during a weekend and also because there were a number of minor traffic accidents on the way. Therefore, the vehicle in which we were traveling remained very close to other vehicles due to low speed.
After I narrated my predicament to a friend in Nakuru, he confirmed my worries. He told me that since my passport had not been stamped and since I had not been finger printed, there was no record anywhere at the airport or elsewhere in Kenya, that I arrived in Kenya on that material day. Therefore, if anything sinister had happened to me, I would not be traceable. He reminded me that if that had happened, I would not have been the fist one to have left for Kenya from abroad, and never to arrive. Such an incidence happened in the 90s when someone was said to have boarded a plane from abroad to Kenya, but never landed on the Kenyan soil according to the records at the airport. Whatever happened to him, remains a mystery up to this day. My press conference to both electronic and printing media in Kenya after my arrival, must have been a blessing in disguise.
On my way back to USA, I encountered a worse scenario. I arrived at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport at 10pm on the 28th of December 2015 in readiness to board a plane at 8.35 am on December 29, 2015. I stayed at the Airport until around 5.30 am when 3 airport workers, two ladies and a man arrived to serve the travelers. I was among the first few people to be served. After I handed my electronic ticket to one of the ladies at the service desk, it took her about 40 minutes to trace my tickets from the computer.
She asked me so many questions and consulted with many other workers before she could retrieve my tickets from the computer. It appeared as though for sure I was not on record as having arrived in Kenya in the first place. After she retrieved my tickets from the computer, she then took my finger prints. I am still puzzled up to this day about what happened to me, and I am concerned and worried about the safety of those two ladies at the airport who probably noticed something peculiar about my travel as they tried to serve me, in and out of Kenya. Witnesses of political murders or political assassinations, and those who unfortunately come across secretive and sensitive information a bout evil activities in the Kenya political system, are never spared or left to live to tell the tales.
By Isaac Newton Kinity
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Haaaaaa mr kinity there r cameras in the jkia airport which takes yr eyes print out n they r always
there on the roof or on top of that desk n am sure u didn't notice them.By the way those finger prints
r done randomly so no big deal.And by the way how comes u never insisted to be taken fingerprints if
it was a concern to you??? If at all u saw other kenyans taken???.I travels almost every 3 months n
sometimes they don't take mine so bratha relax no big deal or Mayb they cancelled yr Kenyan citizenship
n u have no idea...Hahaha just kidding.I will ask my cousin who works there n I will get to you if it was
something normal or not but as I said it happens to me regularly.
Sounds like a step back in time 80s/90s. Fastforward 2015, you should have demanded to know why you were supposedly singled out. The lady may have recognized you and faulted; not doing her job expeditiously.
Mzee Kiniti relax already. I just went past Logan Airport and did not take fingerprints. You are not only known by your finger prints. welcome to the 21st Century mbuyu.
The ambiguity at which you are telling this story strongly suggests that you are either xenophobic, anxious or you are doing the write up for some sort of mischief. If anyone in the Government, as you may suppose, and given your circumstances wanted to do harm to you, not even your appearance in the press would remedy it. In other words, this to flatly tell you that there is noone interested in harming you in Kenya. Many will tell you over and again that recording finger marks is a random exercise and that since you were exempted, count yourself accorded some benefit of recognition or it it could possibly be a mistake.
I believe you did not have an army during your stay. And if any one had some intention to even scare you, one had long extra hours rather than wait till you are on board. Right now, you need to stay safe from yourself and worry the least about the two ladies that served you.