Rights activist Maina Kiai briefly detained at JKIA

Human rights activist Maina Kiai was Sunday morning briefly detained at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA), Nairobi, in unclear circumstances as he sought to fly out to Europe.

Muslims for Human Rights (Muhuri) chairperson Khelef Khalifa said in a statement that Mr Kiai was detained for almost two hours at the JKIA, after an immigration officer attempted to confiscate his passport without giving reasons.

Mr Khalifa added that Mr Kiai was able to contact Immigration director Gordon Kihalangwa and was later allowed to board the plane bound for Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic.

“Mr Kiai refused to hand over the passport, managed to call the director of immigration, Mr Kihalangwa and eventually was allowed to board the plane heading to Europe,” said Mr Khalifa.

Mr Kiai, a fierce government critic, is the second high profile Kenyan to be held up by immigration officials before travelling out of the country in recent days.

Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) commissioner Roselyn Akombe was prevented from boarding her flight to the US last Wednesday, and was only able to leave after the US Embassy in Nairobi intervened. She holds dual Kenya-US citizenship.

READ: Why IEBC’s Akombe was pulled out of US-bound plane

Mr Kiai, a board member of the Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC), is the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, and executive director of InformAction.

The NGOs Co-ordination Board on August 14 delisted KHRC on claims of tax evasion, illegal bank accounts and illegal hiring of expatriates.

However, following an outcry, acting Interior secretary Fred Matiang’i suspended the de-registration of the body and also that of the Africa Centre for Open Governance (Africog).

Mr Kiai’s colleague at InformAction, Lucy Hannan, said that the activist was heading to Prague when the morning incident happened.