Heathrow and Gatwick often turn back people trying to enter Great Britain and put them on the first available flight back to their point of departure or home country. There are hours of footage on Youtube where you can follow the process** and sometimes feel for the poor visitors with their dashed hopes.
Now, A Brit with a self-confessed affinity for Kenyan Al Qaeda operatives entered JKIA and was taken through a process of identification, interrogation and deportation. He got back home and wrote a scathing, bitter account of his ordeal. Today, in a second wave- he is trying very hard to link his experience to claims that he was investigating Eurobond manenos.
A DN editorial tries to frame the journalists position thus:
Mr Starkey, who has been based in Kenya for five years, was held at the arrivals section of the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport on December 9, detained without access to a lawyer for more than 24 hours, and then put on a plane back to London.
This is the way deportees are normally treated. No explanation was proffered to the journalist.
It is simply not right that anybody should be treated in such a manner.
But the fact this strange action was taken against a journalist — and in the absence of a clear explanation by the authorities — the suspicion naturally arises that this was an effort to intimidate the media.
It is to be hoped that this is not the case.
If there was a genuine mistake, Mr Starkey should be informed of this without delay.
As one of the most open societies in Africa, Kenya has long been the home of many journalists from around the world covering Africa.
The country benefits immensely from the exposure that these journalists offer by serving as a window to the world for Kenya.
The authorities should be tolerant of criticism and any efforts to highlight the areas in which the government falls short.
It is still a mystery why Mr Starkey was expelled.
As if Kenyan authorities do not have the right to reject British visitors or everybody who comes in with a press badge!! This one openly sympathizes with terrorists.
**Do the poor folks featured in these TV shows ever get to give their consent to be followed, filmed and broadcast as they are harangued by border officials turned TV stars?
P.s. Until his deportation, Jerome Starkley had nothing to say about Eurobond.
