A British journalist deported from Nairobi last Sunday has said that an investigation he was undertaking was responsible for the tough decision the government took against him.
Jerome Starkey said he was investigating the controversial Eurobond transaction when he was arrested and detained for 24 hours at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport Friday night before he was put on a London-bound plane later on Saturday.
The Nation reports that by Saturday, Mr Starkey was still in the dark concerning why he was harshly ejected from Kenya.
“I am yet to get any coherent explanation for the actions of Kenyan authorities,” he said.
He further hinted that the Eurobond saga was the sole reason the government moved in with speed to see him put on a plane back to Europe.
“I have spoken to many contacts and gone through my notebooks to see what could possibly have triggered it and the reasons that lead me to believe it was my investigation into the Eurobond are compelling,” added the Africa Correspondent for the London Times.
Starkey was blocked from entering Kenya following his short trip to London as the airport’s immigration officials said his passport had a “security block”.
This forced the editor of the Times to write to President Uhuru Kenyatta lamenting over the deportation facing his reporter terming it “an attack on the press” and “a matter of grave concern for Britons living in and visiting Kenya”.
“Mr Starkey has worked in Nairobi for more than four years. He is the most recent in a long line of Times correspondents to work in your country stretching back to 1912,” wrote Editor John Witherow.
“The Times took the decision to invest in Kenya four years ago by relocating our Africa bureau to Nairobi. His summary deportation would suggest to us, and to our many prominent readers, that Kenya is not open to freedom of expression,” he added.
Starkey has on his account said that the incidence was a great disappointment especially now that Nairobi was considered a more liberal home for journalists.
“I am not speaking out of anger but disappointment,” he said.
“Kenya has been my home for five years. I loved it there. One of the things Kenya does better than all of its neighbours is journalism,” added the journalist.