A Somali national has been charged in court over allegations that he used false information to obtain Kenyan identity documents, including a passport and a temporary permit.
The man was arrested on October 27 at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) as he prepared to board a flight to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) reported.
According to the DCI, detectives from the Immigration and Citizen Services department investigated the matter before recommending that he be charged.
He was presented before the JKIA Law Courts on Thursday, November 12, where he faced four charges linked to his immigration status and the alleged use of fraudulent documents.
The charges included being unlawfully present in Kenya, presenting an identity card with false entries while knowing it contained incorrect information, and making false declarations to obtain a Kenyan passport and temporary permit.
The suspect denied all the charges.
The court released him on a bond of KSh400,000 and directed him to provide two Kenyan contact persons.
He was also ordered to surrender any passport in his possession, with the court directing that a stop order be placed on the documents. The matter is scheduled for a pre-trial hearing on November 25.
The case comes about a month after another Somali national was fined KSh370,000 by the same court over offences involving the fraudulent acquisition of Kenyan travel and identity documents.
The man had admitted to being unlawfully present in the country and using false identity details to obtain a Kenyan passport. He was fined KSh150,000 for unlawful presence, KSh150,000 for obtaining a passport through false information and KSh70,000 for presenting an identity card containing fraudulent entries.
The latest prosecution also comes at a time when questions surrounding Kenyan identity documents held by Somali government officials have attracted attention in both countries.
In July 2026, Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud reportedly directed government officials holding Kenyan passports and national identity cards to surrender the documents.
The directive required the affected officials to choose between retaining their government positions and keeping the Kenyan documents.
The issue followed reports that two senior Somali government officials had been denied entry into Kenya over questions surrounding their travel documents.
Kenya’s Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi later held talks with Somalia’s Foreign Minister Abdisalam Ali in Addis Ababa in July to address immigration concerns and ease tensions between the two countries.
In August, Somalia’s Second Deputy Prime Minister Jibril Abdirashid Haji was among those reported to have surrendered his Kenyan passport, national identity card and birth certificate following the directive.