Ever tried to keep out of trouble but trouble just keeps coming after you? Well, this is what happened to Statehouse secretary of digital innovations Dennis Itumbi.
Itumbi took some time off his seemingly busy schedule to congratulate Ilhan Omar following her historic victory to become one of the first Muslim women in Congress.
“The new Congress woman out of Minnesota. She lived in Daadab refugeee camp in Kenya for four years. Democrat @IlhanMN proves once again that you can re-write your story. 1. She did not know English when she went to USA at age 12. She learnt English by watching TV Congrats!” posted Itumbi on twitter.
The new Congress woman out of Minnesota. She lived in Daadab refugeee camp in Kenya for four years.
Democrat @IlhanMN proves once again that you can re-write your story.
1. She did not know English when she went to USA at age 12. She learnt English by watching TV
Congrats! pic.twitter.com/VZcSjsaaNe
— Dennis Itumbi, HSC (@OleItumbi) November 7, 2018
Itumbi’s seemingly honest opinion did not go well with Kenyans on twitter as some termed him hypocritical give his previous support of the controversial security law that was passed in December 2014.
It is this law that amended Kenya’s Refugee act.
According to the controversial bill, “the number of refugees and asylum seekers permitted to stay in Kenya shall not exceed 150,000”
In 2014, hundreds of suspected illegal Somali immigrants were rounded up in a security swoop across Eastleigh and South C estates after a series of terror attacks in the city.
They were later detained at Moi Sports Centre, Kasarani, with activists raising concern over the squalid conditions in the camp and the overcrowding the detainees had to endure.
Last year, President Uhuru Kenyatta rejected a bill that gave some 500,000 refugees living in camps the right to work and use land for business and farming, saying there was no public participation on the proposed law.
The Refugees Bill was in line with the shift to offer longer-term help for refugees to become more self-sufficient after years of reliance on donors who have found it increasingly difficult to provide for them.
Legally, all refugees in Kenya must live in camps and cannot work, even though some arrived three decades ago.
President Kenyatta said even though the bill relates to an important aspect of management of refugees in the country, there was no public participation in its formulation in accordance with Article 118 of the constitution.
“In view of the foregoing, I recommend that the said Bill should be referred back to Parliament to allow for public input in accordance with the Constitution,” President Kenyatta said. Refugees or asylum seekers with professional qualifications such as doctors, engineers and architects were to be entitled to work permits upon application in accordance with the Kenya Citizenship and Immigration Act 2011.
Netizens took time to remind Itumbi of the government’s previous hard stands on refugees and that it is in fact the government that he actually works for that has at times made it difficult for refugees to thrive in the country hence making some of them seek asylum in other countries like the USA.
Below are some the reactions:
I know you’re still preoccupied by maribe the criminoo. On your conjugal break pls take take remember what you said about them 4 years ago. Internet never forget pic.twitter.com/uyCoQc1nPB
— Hu$$ler (@Am_Justus) November 7, 2018
America gave her the chance to vie, run and win. But Kenya refugees are treated as if they are not humans. Give refugees the chance to move freely and take part in the country’s Economic development.
— Kingmohaa (@Abdirehman_Abdi) November 7, 2018
Why is that as the country’s leadership, we always associate with success, success which you’re not part of? From Barrack Obama to Victor Wanyama to Divock Origi, now to Ilhan Omar…
— Murunga Lilechi ?? ? (@lilechikenya) November 8, 2018
Those things can only happen in America not in places like kenya
— Moses Omolo(selfproclaimed dealmaker) (@omolomoses1) November 7, 2018