Hiiraan Online
Saturday, February 14, 2015
NAIROBI (HOL) ---Kenyan security forces detained a Somali-American man in Nairobi for illegally staying in the country, HOL has learned.
Mahdi Mawel from Seattle spends his eighth day in a Nairobi prison who contacted HOL from the prison says he received no support from US Kenya embassy which he said was supposed to back him on his legal
challenges.
"I'm in the jail with false charges of staying in Kenya while I have a visa issued to me by Kenya to enter the country." He said.
HOL reporters who visited the detainee in the prison confirmed he had his own legal papers including his passport and visa which is valid until April this year.
In the court papers, his charges include that he's a Somali national who entered in Kenya illegally, a charge he denies. The validity of his papers calls Kenya's charges against him into question.
Mr. Mawel's arrest by Kenyan forces is parts of series of crackdowns against Somalis in the neighboring country which tries to end attacks by Islamist militants who carried out deadly attacks in retaliation
for Kenya's military intervention in the horn of Africa nation.
During the crackdown, many illegal immigrants from Somalia were sent to overcrowded camps in Kenya which accuses of them of illegally staying in the country.