How Chinese police are hunting down Kenyans using information given to Kenyan Embassy

Tony Mukere

April 23, 2020 3:53 PM

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Kenyans living in China have complained that the information they had given to the Kenyan Embassy in their host country is being to hunt them down for purposes of placing them in forced quarantine.

Kenyans in China said they had been asked by the Kenyan Embassy to provide personal information which would help in their evacuation from the Asian country.

The information, however, landed in the hands of the brutal Chinese police that has tracked a number of Kenyans and placed them on forced quarantine.

It is not clear is the information was provided willingly or it was leaked to the Chinese authorities. Foreign Affairs PS Macharia Kamau and Kenya's Ambassador to China Sarah Serem declined to speak on the suspected leak of confidential information.

"One of the interrogated Kenyans confirmed to have seen a whole list with police. A list that had been compiled of Kenyans who wanted to leave China and had sought help from the embassy. Can you believe that?” an official of Kenyans in China Organisation (Kico) lobby group complained to the Nation.

Kico is organizing fundraisers to assist distressed Kenyans leave China where they have suffered racial based attacks and harassment.

The Kenyan government declined to cater the cost of the evacuation of its citizens saying the situation in the country could be resolved through talks with the Chinese authorities.

However, even those who are willing to cater for their return to Kenya have been frustrated by the fact that China insists anyone leaving its borders must be subjected to a 14-day mandatory quarantine on a self-catering basis.

This means that after saving money for a flight to Nairobi, a Kenyan returning to Kenya must have extra money to cater for stay at q quarantine facility in China for 14 days and a second one in Kenya where they will be placed on 14 day mandatory quarantine.

Tony Mukere