Somalia’s Second Deputy Prime Minister, Jibril Abdirashid Haji, says he has surrendered his Kenyan passport, becoming the first senior official to publicly confirm compliance with President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud’s directive requiring ministers and senior officials to give up Kenyan travel documents or leave office.
MOGADISHU – Somalia’s Second Deputy Prime Minister, Jibril Abdirashid Haji, said he has surrendered the Kenyan passport he previously held, becoming the first senior government official to publicly confirm compliance with President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud’s directive ordering cabinet members and senior officials to relinquish Kenyan travel documents or leave office.
Speaking in a video posted on social media, Haji said he had handed over the passport following the president’s order.
The announcement follows weeks of diplomatic tension between Somalia and Kenya after Haji was denied entry into Nairobi in late June.
According to a Kenyan police report cited by local media, Haji arrived at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport on June 24 using a Somali diplomatic passport with a valid visa. Immigration officers questioned him over a Kenyan passport they suspected had been fraudulently obtained. The report said Haji acknowledged possessing the passport but declined to surrender it, saying he would only do so through a court process.
He was later placed on a return flight to Mogadishu while Kenyan authorities opened an investigation into how the passport had been acquired. Kenya has not announced the outcome of that investigation, and Haji has not publicly addressed the allegations surrounding the document.
The controversy deepened last week when Somalia’s State Minister at the Presidency, Abshir Bukhaari, was also reportedly denied entry at Nairobi’s airport after immigration officials questioned a Kenyan passport he was said to be carrying. Neither Nairobi nor Mogadishu issued an official statement on that incident.
Somali media have also reported that Kenyan immigration authorities placed about 30 Somali government officials on airport watchlists, resulting in several refusals of entry in recent weeks. Horseed Media has been unable to independently verify those reports.
The passport dispute prompted President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud to issue a directive requiring ministers and senior government officials holding Kenyan passports or identity documents to surrender them or vacate their positions.
The order has reportedly exposed divisions within the cabinet, where some officials argue that Somalia’s legal framework recognizes dual citizenship and does not automatically revoke Somali nationality upon acquiring another citizenship. Kenya’s Constitution likewise permits dual citizenship.
Legal experts note, however, that surrendering a passport and renouncing citizenship are not the same. A passport is a travel document, while citizenship is a legal status. Under Kenyan law, renunciation requires a formal declaration and approval by the relevant authorities, meaning that handing over a passport alone does not necessarily terminate citizenship.
That distinction could prove significant. Even if Haji has surrendered his Kenyan passport, any investigation into how it was obtained could continue independently of his current legal status.
The dispute has also cast a spotlight on Kenya’s immigration policies. Immigration Principal Secretary Belio Kipsang has previously maintained that non-Kenyans are issued only alien registration documents for administrative purposes, a position that appears difficult to reconcile with reports that senior Somali officials possessed Kenyan passports.
The episode has strained relations between the neighboring countries, although senior officials from both governments recently met in Addis Ababa and agreed to strengthen cooperation on immigration and consular affairs.
Horseed Media contacted Somalia’s Office of the Prime Minister and Kenya’s Directorate of Immigration Services for comment but had not received responses at the time of publication.
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