Kenyan fights deportation from US
The Standard
Published on 21/04/2009
Mike McGraw
What do you do about a Kenyan with an expired visa who just won’t go back home?
In the curious case of Mr David Kihuha, the US government wants to resume a rarely used and controversial practice and sedate him, then put him on a one-way flight to Nairobi.
But that has proven to be difficult, at best.
Indeed, the case of the 36-year-old Kenyan, a former Olathe resident, has frustrated federal prosecutors, hobbled the government’s deportation system and led to the unusual tactic of indicting Kihuha on federal felonies for, in essence, refusing to leave.
As the drama plays out in a US District Court in Kansas, Kihuha remains in a cell in Leavenworth, and he has made it abundantly clear he prefers prison in America to freedom in Kenya.
Fearful that returning home could be dangerous, Kihuha — who has been in the US for 13 years on an expired student visa — sought asylum because of alleged violence in Kenya.
"That is the fuel that feeds his intransigence," said Melody Evans, his federal public defender, in court.
Denied asylum
"Whatever his circumstance here, it cannot be worse than what he faces at home," wrote Evans, who declined to comment further on the case.
How determined is Kihuha?
Since he was denied asylum, Kihuha has used every means available to avoid deportation.
Twice last year, when immigration agents tried to deport him, Kihuha managed a last-minute reprieve.
He bit, spat and, according to government records, managed to "cover himself in his own excrement."
He also chewed up a head covering known as a ‘spit mask’.
"I told them I did not want to go. I told them to take me back to jail," said Kihuha in a telephone interview from his cell.
Belabouring the obvious, the government noted in court filings that commercial pilots "will not accept a violent, faeces-besmeared passenger who chews off protective clothing and spits and bites."
The government’s frustration with Kihuha is evident in documents filed after his indictment last year.
"Dumping the defendant out the door of a plane with a parachute is not practical or diplomatically prudent," noted the government at one point.
As for his methods, government said, he has "crafted a relatively painless plot" to stay in the US.
Those who know him say Kihuha is no poster child for the sympathetic immigrant. And since going to jail, he has become so obsessed with remaining here that he has reportedly become unpredictable and unco-operative, even with those who are trying to help him.
While Kihuha is ‘no picnic’ to have in prison, the government says, "he is not mentally ill, and his behaviour is "generally acceptable."
But detention for more than 20 months in four different facilities has not been any picnic for Kihuha, either.
He has been segregated in a federal holding facility in Leavenworth and confined to his cell for up to 24 hours a day. At one point Kihuha allegedly sabotaged his toilet, forcing him into the all-too-familiar situation of having to live with his own excrement.
"It is really quite unfair," said Kihuha "because when you don’t know much about the law, they take advantage of you".
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