Somalia’s Deputy Prime Minister deported
CAPTION: Somalia’s Deputy Prime Minister Jibril Abdirashid Haji (File photo).
By Agencies
JOMO KENYATTA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT – A senior Somali government official was reportedly turned away from Kenya over questions surrounding his travel documents.
Somalia’s Deputy Prime Minister Jibril Abdirashid Haji was reportedly deported from Kenya. Photo: Somali National News Agency. Source: UGC
The incident is said to have occured on Thursday evening at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA), where Somalia’s Deputy Prime Minister, Jibril Abdirashid Haji, landed on a Saacid Airlines flight from Mogadishu.
According to Citizen TV, Haji presented a valid Somali diplomatic passport together with an entry visa upon arrival.
Is Somalia’s deputy prime minister holding a fraudulent Kenyan passport?
However, officers allegedly became suspicious after receiving information that he was also carrying a Kenyan passport believed to have been obtained fraudulently.
Sources familiar with the matter claim the Somali deputy prime minister admitted to possessing the Kenyan passport but declined to hand it over to immigration officials, maintaining that any dispute over the document should instead be resolved through the courts.
The disagreement reportedly led to Haji being held at the JKIA VIP Lounge as senior immigration officials carried out further checks on his travel documents.
How Somalia deputy prime minister was deported from Kenya
He was later escorted onto a Daallo Airlines flight back to Mogadishu, effectively denying him entry into Kenya.
By the time of publication, neither the Kenyan government nor the Somali administration had issued an official statement regarding the incident.
However, a senior official at Kenya’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed that the Somali deputy prime minister had been deported at around 0645hrs with no incident reported.
Citizen TV reported that a senior government official with knowledge of the case said Kenyan authorities have become increasingly concerned about the growing number of foreign nationals allegedly acquiring Kenyan passports through corrupt and illegal networks.
The incident comes just days after President William Ruto hosted Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud on Sunday, June 21, at his private farm and residence in Kilgoris, Narok county.
During the high-level, one-day visit, Ruto personally drove his Somali counterpart around the expansive property in an open-canopy terrain vehicle.
Their face-to-face bilateral discussions reportedly centered on strengthening regional security, managing funding concerns for cross-border peacekeeping operations, and expanding trade cooperation within the Horn of Africa.
A past image of President William Ruto with his Somalia counterpart President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud. Photo: Somali Guardian. Source: UGC
How are fake documents issued in exchange for bribes?
In recent weeks, explosive media exposés unmasked alleged deeply entrenched corruption syndicates operating within the Immigration Department and the National Registration Bureau.
Rogue government officials, allegedly collaborating with cross-border brokers, have been reportedly bypassing strict biometric vetting to systematically issue fraudulent national identity cards, birth certificates, and passports to foreign nationals in exchange for large cash bribes.
According to a local daily, the sophisticated racket even utilised proxy citizens, including one local man reportedly registered in the official database as the biological father to over 100 people in order to falsely validate citizenship claims.
Opposition leaders have increasingly warned that a compromised civil registration infrastructure not only mirrors vulnerabilities exploited in past regional terror attacks but also threatens the integrity of the upcoming 2027 General Election.
