By our Investigation Unit
In what seems to have been going on for at least five years, Politico has uncovered what is apparently a huge passport scam at Sierra Leone’s consulate in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi.
After months of investigations that took us to the east African country, Politico can authoritatively reveal that the passport syndicate involves at least one official at the mission, who various sources have named as Deputy Consul Abdul Kargbo, and officials at the Immigration Department in Freetown.
Early last year, two West African nationals, one holding a Sierra Leonean passport were paraded on Citizen TV in Kenya for attempting to swindle a worker at the Kenya human rights commission, Hassan Omar, a whooping KHS 20 million, about US$ 250,000. They were dramatically nabbed by detectives who had been called in by officials of the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission who had themselves been tipped off. Close Circuit Television (CCTV) footage obtained by Citizen TV and seen by Politico revealed how the deal was botched.
A source close to the immigration department in Freetown has confirmed to Politico that the man alleged to be Sierra Leonean acquired his passport fraudulently through a syndicate allegedly between Abdul Kargbo at the Sierra Leone consulate and some immigration officials in Freetown including a man known only as Fatorma.
A Sierra Leonean lady, who spoke to Politico in Nairobi on condition of anonymity, said that when she was leaving Freetown some five years ago to go and live in Kenya, she was given a pile of passports to take to Abdul Kargbo with some of them having “white men” as their owners. She said they were given to her by one Fatorma at the Freetown immigration. He told Politico of how many tell her that the deal was still on going.
A Kenyan journalist close to his country’s authorities said some Kenyan officials had expressed concern lately over the issue of Sierra Leonean passports.
“Do not be surprised if the authorities here [Kenya] decide to impose visa restrictions on Sierra Leonean passport holders entering Kenya,” he said. At present Sierra Leoneans do not need a visa because the two countries are Commonwealth member states.
After weeks without success, Politico finally got hold of Abdul Kargbo this week who said he was in the United Kingdom on an “official visit”. He declined to comment saying the matter was being investigated by the Foreign Affairs office in Freetown.
“I will call back to furnish you once I get back to Kenya. The matter is even being investigated by the Anti-Corruption commission in Freetown”, he said. Abdul went to say that he had been “waiting for this call since the day I learnt that one of you [Umaru Fofana] had spoken to people [in Kenya] who have been peddling this lie about us”.
Interestingly, in April, just after Politico had called a senior official at the immigrations headquarters in Freetown, from Nairobi, to cross check the allegations with him, Kargbo called back the Kenya number from Freetown, which could only mean that the immigration official called him to say Politico was investigating the issue. Umaru says Kargbo sounded worried on the phone and insisted that the two of them should discuss the issue “as friends” but insists he cannot recall ever meeting Kargbo prior and certainly not since.
Responding to the issue, the chief immigration officer, Kholifa Koroma said he was not aware of any such claims about Sierra Leonean passports being sold illegitimately, a process that he noted was “not easy”.
Asked whether he was aware of any Fatorma alleged to have been sending passports to Kenya with some allegedly bearing foreign manes as owners, he said, “there is a Fatorma working with us”. He finally agreed that it was possible that certain people in the immigration department could facilitate passport acquisition through deception thereby colluding with scammers.
“We are going to mount an investigation into this. If anybody is proven to be an accomplice, the law will certainly take its course,” he assured, and craved the support of Politico to get to the bottom of the passport scam. Fatorma could not be reached several efforts.
While all efforts to get the Consul General in Nairobi, Fuad Sasso, proved abortive, a lady named Alice Kamau has also made serious allegations against Abdul Kargbo. We are consulting with our lawyers before publishing Alice’s letter written on 10 June 2011 to Sierra Leone’s consul general in Kenya.
Additionally, a petition letter, written on 12 January 2012 by Sierra Leoneans living in Kenya to the Ambassador in Ethiopia who also covers Kenya, raises serious allegations against Kargbo. It says that a Sierra Leonean footballer, Muctarr Odada Rogers, (we have picture scans of passport and receipt) got stranded in Kenya arising from Kargbo’s refusal to renew his passport without a bribe.
Kargbo, according to the petition, had asked him to pay US$100 and a bribe of 16,000 shillings (about US$ 200) to get the passport on time. Muctarr was to travel to Oman on a football contract but could not make it due to the delay by Kargbo to help facilitate his passport renewal. He even allegedly demanded additional money to process the new passport. Politico listened to a recording believed to be the voice call conversation between Muctarr and Kargbo.
A letter written to Sierra Leone’s Information Attaché in Addis Ababa, Abdul Karim Koroma, for the attention of the ambassador to respond to the issue did not even get an acknowledgement, eight weeks on, which is why we cannot bring the ambassador’s side of the story.
